A little over a week ago, Joe Biden gave what was perhaps the most disturbing speech a president has given in modern history. It was everything the media used to accuse Donald Trump’s speeches of being. Biden’s anger flowed through divisive rhetoric as he ranted that he was “losing patience” with the unvaccinated. That division was accentuated by the hysterical claim the vaccinated need to be “protected” from the unvaccinated, a contention that ignores the scientific facts on who can spread COVID (i.e. everyone can).
But the fear was the point. While there’s still no actual OSHA regulation, the clear goal of Biden’s speech was to scare people into going ahead and getting the vaccine. Further, by offering cover, the White House hoped companies would go ahead and enforce their own mandates.
Well, the first data point is in, and it shows that strategy has been a complete failure.
Who could have possibly foreseen that levying tyrannical threats against Americans while trying to push irrational, fallacy-filled divisions wouldn’t actually motivate more people to go out and get vaccinated? Further, I think it’s clear Biden is a wet noodle of a president. No one actually takes anything he says seriously, no matter how much he rants and raves while reading off the teleprompter. “Righteous anger” from the federal government rarely plays well with the general population. Most Americans are conditioned to recoil at such obscene displays of centralized power.
But as I said at the time, there were strategic blunders in the speech as well. Putting aside arguments over the vaccine itself, had the White House simply acknowledged natural immunity and created a carveout for that large portion of the unvaccinated, they would have further isolated those they are seeking to target.
They didn’t do that for two reasons, in my opinion. One, they are so short-sighted that they believe anything short of telling everyone they must get vaccinated will somehow undermine their “message.” That’s ludicrous, of course. By acknowledging natural immunity and treating it the same as vaccination, it would actually build trust in what the government is saying and reduce vaccine hesitancy. Instead, we have a federal government pretending natural immunity doesn’t exist.
Two, I think there are definitely financial considerations at play. If you tell tens of millions of people that they don’t need the vaccine, that’s a lot of doses that don’t get ordered. Whether there are personal financial entanglements in the mix or just worries about future donations from big pharma, Democrat politicians seem to be obsessed with making everyone get the vaccine even if they scientifically do not need it.
To summarize, I think the refusal to acknowledge natural immunity and to create exemptions for those that have it has had a dramatic impact on vaccinations. It has only created further distrust of Biden and the rest of the federal government. People do not like to be peed on and told it’s raining. Rather, they generally value honesty, and honesty would go a lot further in getting people vaccinated than angry tirades from a senile old man.