About those vaccines

 

Ever wonder why Republicans (a lot more of them than Democrats) don't believe that vaccines work, and even worse, believe that they actually hurt and even kill people -- and do that more than saving people's lives?

So do I.

This helps explain it a bit.

Why do Republicans disproportionately believe health misinformation?

"Respondents to new polling from KFF were presented with a number of statements and asked to evaluate whether they thought the claims were definitely or probably true. Asked about false claims that have been made about covid and other vaccines, Republicans were on average 20 percent more likely to state that they believed the false claims were accurate. Foremost among them: the regularly debunked idea that the coronavirus vaccine has caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people. Nearly half of Republicans think that’s true."

"Some of this is rooted in the impulse that could have driven [Representative Marjorie Taylor] Greene to share that story about covid-19 conspiracies. Objection to the government’s presentation of the pandemic is now ingrained in right-wing politics, and demonstrating one’s rejection of those presentations is a partisan signifier. In some cases, it’s probably less that the respondents believe the false claims than they are willing to express some acceptance of them, given how their politics establishes that as a standard response."

So that's why they believe things that are false.  They're Republicans, and because they are, they are being told what to believe.