Geo

Suddenly, Conservatives Care About V*****es

A number of leaders on the right suddenly urged their audiences to get v******ted in the past day. Why now?
By David A. Graham

5:51 PM ET

About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Updated at 8:06 p.m. ET on July 20, 2021

Conservatives are not necessarily v*****e-hesitant, to paraphrase John Stuart Mill, but most v*****e-hesitant Americans people are conservatives. Resistance to v*****es has been concentrated among Republican v**ers, and led by GOP politicians and various leading lights in conservative media.

And that makes the past day or so one of the stranger stretches in recent p******c politics.

“Just like we’ve been saying, please take C***D seriously. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more deaths. Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor,” Fox News’s Sean Hannity said last night. “It absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get v******ted.”

Hannity’s “just like we’ve been saying” is doing a lot of work. He reportedly called the p******c a “h**x” early on, and his colleague Tucker Carlson continues to cast doubt on v*****es, including on yesterday’s program. But Hannity is not alone now. His statement comes as several other major conservatives are speaking up too.

Steve Doocy, one of the anchors of the network’s popular morning show Fox & Friends, has been advocating for v*****es, and tangling with co-hosts over it. “If you have the chance, get the shot,” he said yesterday. “It will save your life.”

David A. Graham: It’s not v*****e hesitancy. It’s C****-** denialism.

Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire, who has been a vocal proponent of v******tion all along, also told his followers today on Twitter, “Get v****d. I did. My wife did. My parents did.”* Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, a confidant of Donald Trump, today published a column praising the current president: “Six months into his administration, President Joe Biden should be applauded for making a huge dent in the C***D p******c.” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who had conspicuously declined to get a shot, offering dubious excuses, announced today that he finally got v******ted this weekend.
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These exhortations have often come in the service of political arguments. In the same breath as his plea for seriousness, Hannity suggested that people who have been infected do not need to be inoculated, misconstruing a scientific study. Shapiro made his point in the midst of a case against lockdowns and mask mandates. Meanwhile, plenty of other major right-wing figures remain quiet or worse.

Nonetheless: The shift in tone among these high-profile voices is sharp and sudden enough to merit notice. A few conservatives have long been outspoken in favor of v******tions. A group of GOP members of Congress who are medical doctors produced a pro-jab PSA this spring, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been as fiery about C****-** precautions as he is about anything. He warned again today, “These shots need to get in everybody’s arm as rapidly as possible or we are going to be back in a situation in the fall, that we don’t yearn for, that we were in last year.”

Fox News, in particular, has been a hive of v*****e skepticism, though. Carlson, the network’s leading personality, was initially a lonely voice in taking the p******c seriously, but has since become a merchant of doubt. This editorial tack comes even though owner Rupert Murdoch was quick to get his own shot in December. Fox has also reportedly encouraged, though not mandated, employees to disclose their v******tion status, even as Carlson has likened v*****e passports to Jim Crow laws on air.

Why the shift is happening now, and so abruptly, is not clear. One possible factor is that, as CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported, “there have been regular, high-level conversations between the White House & Fox News regarding p******c & v*****e coverage.” Fox quickly denied the report.

Another possibility is the emergence of a new C****-** surge, fueled by the Delta variant. Scalise, like some of the others, cited Delta as a reason to get v******ted now. The more infectious strain has led to rising case numbers in the United States, overloaded hospitals in some states with low v******tion rates, and reinstated lockdowns around the world. Fear about Delta is spreading around the U.S., and it was blamed for a swoon in the stock market yesterday. The Delta variant is also spreading particularly in red states, which lag more liberal areas in v*****e uptake. Yet widespread death and suffering among conservatives and Republican v**ers has not inspired such a unified response.

Wh**ever the reason, the shift is welcome. Researchers such as Brendan Nyhan have noted that trusted messengers can be effective in breaking down v*****e hesitancy. As my colleague Daniel Engber writes, v******tion rates have tumbled “because we’re running out of people who think v*****es will save their lives.” Although the number of Americans who have received or want to receive a v*****e has risen somewhat, opinions also seem to have hardened over time. Such blunt messages might have been more influential this spring. Even if audiences heed the call now, it will take time for their v*****es to have an effect.

Meanwhile, the most trusted messenger of all for many on the right remains mostly on the sidelines. Trump has sought to claim credit for the development of the v*****es, but has not dev**ed the energy to boosting them that he has to (for example) spreading disinformation about the 2020 e******n. And though the former president did get v******ted, he declined to take his shot publicly, a gesture that experts thought could have instilled faith among his supporters.

That’s one of many missed opportunities for a more effective C****-** response in the United States. But even if the effect of this week’s messaging from conservatives is small, it’s enough to elicit a sentiment you won’t read in The Atlantic often: Sean Hannity is right.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

It's what, 1 1/2 years too late?