MAGA-world may resist the vaccine, but it still wants Trump to get credit – By Tina Nguyen (Politico) / Dec 16 2020
Trump’s supporters are praising the president for the vaccine while arguing against getting the shot — a preview of the difficulties going into 2021.
To his die-hard fans, President Donald Trump is a hero for creating the coronavirus vaccines. But that doesn’t mean they want the vaccine — or think others should take it.
They just want Trump to get credit.
Across the far-right, and especially in the conspiratorial corners of MAGA world, Trump’s supporters are finding novel ways to both lavish the president with praise for speeding a Covid vaccine, while arguing against taking the vaccine itself.
Some explanations focus on limiting vaccinations — only high-risk individuals and health care workers should get it, while the rest should simply resume our pre-pandemic lives. Others are reflexively anti-establishment — a vaccine is needed, but the government shouldn’t dictate what we put in our bodies. Others are fantastical — the vaccine is somehow part of an elitist conspiracy to control the world.
And increasingly, the loudest anti-vaccine advocates are high-profile MAGA supporters.
Emerald Robinson, White House correspondent for the pro-Trump television network Newsmax, tweeted this month that people don’t need vaccines, but “the politicians want it for control.” The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump news organization that has prompted untrue conspiracy theories, called the prospect of widespread immunizations “creepy.” Senate Republicans allowed a Covid vaccine skeptic to testify last week, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the possibility of mandatory Covid vaccination — even though no such dictate is on the table — “a legitimate crisis.”
CONTINUE > https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/16/maga-coronavirus-vaccine-446022
