Why More Americans Are Saying They’re ‘Vaxxed and Done’
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To understand how ideologically scrambling the Omicron wave has been, consider this: Some 2022 Democrats are sounding like 2020 Republicans. In spring 2020, many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, insisted that COVID was hardly worse than the flu; that its fatality risk was comparable to an everyday activity, like driving in a car; and that an obsessive focus on cases wouldn’t give an accurate picture of what was going on in the pandemic.
In the current Omicron wave, these Republican talking points seem to have mostly come true—for most vaccinated non-senior adults, who are disproportionately Democrats.
But Democratic talking points about the severity of COVID and the need for commensurate that has seen their hospitalization rates soar this winter to all-time highs. About 9,000 Americans are dying of COVID every week. Preliminary state data that more than 90 percent of today’s deaths are still among unvaccinated people. This year, COVID is on pace to kill who would, quite likely, avoid death by getting two or three shots.
