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The anti-vaccine movement is on the rise. The White House is at a loss over what to do about it. (www.politico.com)

submitted 9 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] Silverseren@kbin.social 16 points 9 months ago

Except it has nothing to do with the medical industry being shady or not. The big recent hullaballoo started because Andrew Wakefield lied to everyone. But that largely only affected the crunchy New Age mom types at the time.

The big explosion of right wing idiots being anti-vaxxers simply has to do with Republican politicians and Fox News repeatedly claiming all scientists and experts on topics are lying (to make money somehow, despite that money never materializing). They started making such anti-science claims with climate change and just expanded it to everything else.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

Fox News: "THE VACCINE IS A SCAM! VACCINES DONT WORK!"

Also Fox News: You can not enter this building unless your are vaccinated.

[-] Silverseren@kbin.social 5 points 9 months ago

And their hosts saying the vaccine is evil and will kill you, while all of them are fully vaccinated. I've even seen some of the hosts say they aren't vaccinated when discussing the topic, despite knowing they 100% are because Fox requires it.

[-] candle_lighter@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

What I'm trying to say is that if the medical industry wasn't filled with liars to begin with then there wouldn't be as big of an issue.

If you are already untrustworthy to begin with it's going to be really easy to convince someone that you did something else wrong.

I could very easily convince many people that Andrew Tate said that a woman should never be a CEO of a company because it sounds like something he would say and he already says plenty of other sexist shit.

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023

274 points (94.5% liked)

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