A Biden administration that vowed to restore Americans’ faith in public health has grown increasingly paralyzed over how to combat the resurgence in vaccine skepticism.
And internally, aides and advisers concede there is no comprehensive plan for countering a movement that’s steadily expanded its influence on the president’s watch.
The rising appeal of anti-vaccine activism has been underscored by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s insurgent presidential campaign and fueled by prominent factions of the GOP. The mainstreaming of a once-fringe movement has horrified federal health officials, who blame it for seeding dangerous conspiracy theories and bolstering a Covid-era backlash to the nation’s broader public health practices.
But as President Joe Biden ramps up a reelection campaign centered on his vision for a post-pandemic America, there’s little interest among his aides in courting a high-profile vaccine fight — and even less certainty of how to win.
“There’s a real challenge here,” said one senior official who’s worked on the Covid response and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “But they keep just hoping it’ll go away.”
The White House’s reticence is compounded by legal and practical concerns that have cut off key avenues for repelling the anti-vaccine movement, according to interviews with eight current and former administration officials and others close to the process.
1). Arrest
2). Force vaccinate via tranq dart guns
3). Keep in jail until they have stayed long enough to get their 2nd dose.
4). Release them to a re-education camp
This place is filled to the brim with authoritarians
Not really. I’m the type of liberal who was raised a republican. Taught how to hate by republican parents. Taught how as a white Christian conservative, I was somehow a victim because someone said Happy Holiday’s instead of Merry Christmas. Told that gays getting married was again victimizing me, because it’s against their version of God. Told by conservative republican parents that seat belt laws were taking my rights away. Taught that corporal punishment is correct parenting, etc etc.
Then, seeing the real world, and getting exposed to multiple cultures, countries, and faiths, and people of all kinds I discover… huh… Conservatives really are just assholes. So over time, issue by issue, I became a liberal Democrat. But you know what didn’t change? Knowing how to hate. Republicans and the church taught me that. Being an asshole and liking to see some people suffer. Republicans and the church taught me that.
Congratulations conservatives! You created a Democrat who can both hate and be an asshole like you! Only now, all conservatives are the target of those skills. I hate you like you hate the LGBTQ+ community, like you hate minorities, like you hate the poor, like you hate equal rights, like you hate democracy. That makes the asshole you bastards formed me into want to see you forced into doing the things that decent human beings would do.
And more. And if we have to drag you to a prison cell and reprogram your fricken brains to make you into decent human beings, then I say do it! Because you republican / conservative / christo-fascist a-holes have it coming. The only extinction I want is that of conservatism / fascism, if only so you stop hurting everyone else.
I wish you’d just be consistent. “Yes I’m an authoritarian and I don’t give a fuck” or something instead of trying to weasel your way out of it with “Um ackshully my family was mean to me when I was a kid so umm it’s fine to want to arrest people and put them in reeducation camps”. Maybe get some therapy and work out your daddy issues. You can maybe find some people who love you some day instead of raging against the world.
lol. I recognize the kind of person you are. We’re done, you don’t deserve explanations. Say whatever you want, I won’t be seeing it anymore.
stay mad