Former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that because of “political ideology,” there were more COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in red states versus blue states.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire said, “We now head into a moment where because of that divisiveness, it’s become a political issue. Vaccinations in particular have become a political issue where you have not just Donald Trump but other Republicans saying, no, no, don’t take the COVID vaccine. We had other prominent figures saying, no, you should not take other vaccines as well, things that are standard that everyone has perceived for decades. With this much of disinformation and anger and just flat out vaccine hesitancy, how nervous are you about our ability to handle the next pandemic, whatever it might be?”
Fauci said, “I’m very concerned about that because the misinformation and disinformation about absolutely scientifically proven life saving interventions. It’s astonishing to me that so many people by political ideology will make a decision that would actually endanger their lives. The facts are, and as a physician and a scientist, this is very painful to me, that if you look at red states versus blue states, because of people getting less vaccinated because you’re a Republican versus a Democrat, there are more deaths and hospitalizations in red states versus blue states. That’s horrible that that happens, that people suffer and die because of misinformation that’s related to a political ideology.”
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