Republicans retreat from the brink of Covid – for now
Despite stiff opposition to the shutdown from many of their GOP colleagues, who indicated that Biden’s vaccine duties were bound in court, Republican Sentiment. Mike Lee of Utah and Roger Marshall of Kansas argue that they are taking a critical stance against the unvaccinated workers in their states who could lose their jobs because of their opposition to vaccines. .
“All we want to do is have a vote to give a parent, soldier, sailor, pilot, or marine that struggles to put food on the table,” Lee said in a statement. speaking in the Senate. “I hope with everything in me that when we vote tonight that the majority of us will do the right thing and that we will vote the way we know we should. That we should vote. We will stand with those who may lose their jobs.”
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, countered that the pandemic has killed more than 780,000 Americans – “a higher body count than any war we’ve ever been in.” She noted that many businesses with vaccination requirements have seen their vaccination rates soar above 90%.
“I don’t understand why – after all the families have gone through, after all we’ve lost and all the hard work we’ve done to rebuild – anyone would want to throw it in. danger and throw away one of our most powerful tools. Murray said: get people vaccinated, stay safe and end this pandemic, once and for all. It is reckless.”
Lee described a desperate economic situation for vaccine-resistant Americans, even though Biden’s vaccination mandate for large employers would allow workers who don’t want to get vaccinated. periodically checked in lieu of injections. But GOP leaders across the country have repeated arguments that the requirement could somehow have devastating consequences, with little acknowledgment of the deadly consequences that prolonging the pandemic could have. can cause.
After the amendment failed on Thursday night, Lee told reporters he plans to continue to introduce measures to block Biden’s vaccine mandates on other bills, specifically alluding to The government’s next funding deadline, February 18, serves as another chance.
“This is not going to go away,” he told reporters. “It will come back again. It will return in any future vote. It will come back every chance we get.”
At a time when Americans are yearning for a return to normalcy, public health experts have argued that getting more people vaccinated is the only way out of the crisis. Resistance to masks, vaccines, and missions has allowed the virus to continue to thrive as the United States enters winter, especially in communities where vaccine resistance is highest.
‘A sad, sad comment’
He stressed that his strategy “is not about decommissioning or decommissioning, but about widespread vaccinations, and boosters, testing and more.” When his vaccine requests, which are expected to go into effect in early January, will be reviewed by the courts, he noted that his new plan does not “extend or add to those duties.”
“I know Covid-19 has been very divisive in this country; it’s become a political issue, it’s a sad commentary,” the president said, speaking from the National Institutes of Health. “This is the time when we can do what we haven’t done enough to get through this entire pandemic – bring the whole country together, unite the people for the common purpose of fighting this virus. , to protect each other and to protect our economic recovery and take it literally as a patriotic responsibility rather than somehow denying people their basic rights.”
The health consequences for the GOP in continuing to feed the unvaccinated American minority are being suffered at a time when nearly 1,000 Americans are still dying from Covid every day.
The average risk of dying from Covid-19 since the vaccine became widely available in states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2020 is 50% higher than in states that voted for Biden, according to the report. a CNN data analysis. from Johns Hopkins University.
As of February 1, red states that voted for Trump have had an average of 116 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 people – about 52% higher than the average of 77 deaths per 100,000 people in colored states. green. The five states with the worst death rates per capita during that time all favor Trump in 2020: Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia.
“The actions that I am announcing are actions that all Americans can rally around and should unite us in the fight against Covid-19,” the president said. But whether he can forge any larger partnership with the GOP to advance his strategies remains to be seen.
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