One of the most disturbing aspects of the rise of Donald Trump is the extent to which his followers came to believe that this carnival-barking, semi-literate, faux-successful businessman with five children by three women, zero relevant experience, and a reputation for f--king people over and being completely full of shit was (and remains) their lord and savior. Despite repeated evidence that they shouldn’t believe a single thing he says, Trump’s supporters have made it clear that they’re more than happy to buy whatever this bloated Jim Jones is selling. (If that comparison seems extreme to you, know that a person who was literally at the Jonestown massacre thinks it’s apt.) So it would stand to reason that if Trump had wholeheartedly endorsed getting vaccinated against COVID-19, members of his base would have been trampling one another to get a shot the moment they were available, as if the jabs were deeply discounted 62-inch flat-screen TVs on Black Friday.
Of course Trump chose not to do that. Instead, he got his vaccine in secret, and since leaving office in January has refused to do anything more than say during random interviews that he “would recommend” getting inoculated before quickly changing the subject; earlier this month, the Daily Beast reported that “despite pleas from multiple friends and advisers,” he’s repeatedly rebuffed the idea of mounting “anything resembling a real effort to get his supporters vaccinated,” as it would be helping Joe Biden. All of which has unsurprisingly led to huge swaths of Republicans choosing not to get a lifesaving vaccine and outlets like Fox News peddling all manner of misinformation about vaccines, like that they aren’t actually necessary and are in fact liberal plots.
At some point over the weekend, though, someone must have drilled it into Trump’s head that things are really, really bad out there: The delta variant is absolutely ripping through unvaccinated communities and leaving numerous parts of Trump Country with nary an ICU bed, and “deathbed vaccine regrets” are now a thing. Because at a rally on Saturday, he did something crazy—he actually came out, in public, and told his supporters to get their shots. And then something perhaps even crazier happened, given how these people feel about him (which, as previously mentioned, is that he’s basically Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ were one of the worst people on earth): They booed him.
Former president Donald Trump was briefly booed at a rally on Saturday in Alabama after telling his supporters they should get vaccinated against COVID-19. Trump, who held a rally in Cullman, about 50 miles north of Birmingham, touted to rallygoers that the three vaccines—Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson—were developed in under nine months during his presidency. He then suggested that they get the vaccine. “You know what? I believe totally in your freedoms. You got to do what you have to do, but I recommend: Take the vaccines. I did it—it’s good,” he said.
You can hear it here for posterity:
Obviously if we weren’t literally talking about life and death here, seeing Trump get booed by the monster of his own making would be a real delight. But since we are, it’s actually pretty terrifying. If he can’t convince his followers to get their shots, what hope do we have left?
As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake put it:
kor_hookmaster on August 23rd, 2021 at 22:42 UTC »
Remember when Trump claimed, again with zero evidence, that hospitals were inflating their COVID cases and deaths for profit and to just to make him look bad? Link
Even today I have Trump supporters who claim that hospitals get more money for COVID deaths, so they think doctors just label every death they can as COVID. They genuinely believe it's all a sham and that the concern for ICU spaces is all a plot by doctors and hospitals for more money and to just perpetuate the COVID hoax.
The damage this man has done is immeasurable.
Edit: Since my private messages are filling up with some.... colourful comments implying that I'm a deluded sheep suckling at the teat of socialist propaganda - let's dig a little deeper, shall we?
Congress did pass a law that stated that hospitals are entitled to a 20% increase in funding for treating COVID-19 patients.
However, it
A) only applied to patients on Medicare and those without medical insurance, not to everyone. Source
B) was an increase in 20%, which doesn't even come close to covering the increased costs of treating someone with COVID-19 versus pneumonia
C) This increase was passed as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities Act (CARES Act) while Trump was president, through a Republican controlled Senate. Trump signed this bill into law. Strange that he rails against something he himself created to help offset the costs of treating COVID-19.
D) as of May 26 2021, the US Department of Justice has charged 14 individuals with fraud relating to COVID-19. You can read the summaries of their cases, nearly all of them relate to using the pretext of COVID-19 to order numerous unnecessary tests or procedures in order to scam insurance companies. Many illegally gathered patient information in order to submit fraudulent claims for procedures that were not requested or required by the patient or claimed to have seen patients via telemedicine appointments when none occurred. Not a single case has to do with generating false death certificates that list COVID-19 as a cause of death when it wasn't the case.
C-Jammin on August 23rd, 2021 at 22:40 UTC »
I'll be surprised if he advocates for getting vaccinated again. We know he loves applause and hates condemnation, and after the mixed reaction he got at his rally the other night, I doubt he'll say anything showing support for the getting vaccinated again.
9mac on August 23rd, 2021 at 22:10 UTC »
It all started with masks, because masks messed up Donald Trump's makeup, that's why he opposed them for so long and then everything COVID related became political. We live in the stupidest timeline.