The Center for Disease Control (CDC) Operational Strategy for K-12 School Reopening.
Maybe this will answer that question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-xF4aNbwp0
This John Oliver spot will definitively answer that question (Adult language) in this 25 minute spot.
This is more than a rhetorical question. It requires closer attention than we have been giving it. The answer to the question is nuanced. Science has learned much about Sars-CoV-2, the initial virus responsible for the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2019-20. It identified the virus, had information on how to prevent the spread of the virus and developed vaccines to block the virus’ means of spreading.
Next came the issue of convincing people all over the world, including in the United States, that we could all look forward to a more rapid normalization of life if we all got vaccinated. Now, I’m not a scientist. But, in 30 years of teaching Sixth Graders Science, I myself learned how Science is done. The rapid development and deployment of this vaccine is truly remarkable. Getting back to normal is now in the hands of the rest of us. Therein lies the problem.
Science has done its job. But, there is still a sizeable portion of U.S. citizens that have not yet been vaccinated even as availability and distribution problems have largely been solved. The data is out there. As of April 25, 2021, 42.2% of all Americans have had at least one dose and 28.5% are fully vaccinated. Those numbers are pretty good considering that the full weight of the United States government, global pharmaceutical companies and health care providers have only been doing it for three months now.
Even now though, there is resistance to getting vaccinated. Even though the reinvigorated CDC and high profile medical professionals have worked tirelessly to inform the American public that getting the vaccine will open up business, get people back to work and put kids back in school safely, there has been significant resistance to getting vaccinated and putting this virus, at least this iteration of it, behind us. Why the resistance and where is it coming from? The Wisconsin State Journal takes a stab at what is going on there and hints at how Wisconsin fits into the nationwide trends in vaccination.
Misinformation about the vaccines spread nearly as fast as the virus itself. The internet is a prime culprit of this spreading misinformation. So too is television commentary that passes itself off as news. That is it calls its commentaries news until the “news” organization claims that what it is reporting is not actually “news” to escape legal culpability for its actions.
Enter one Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson. For any of this verbage to make any sense, please watch the two videos at the beginning of this piece. Tucker Carlson has knowingly published information designed to prevent his viewers from getting vaccinated.
Americans are not stupid. Ignorant, maybe, but not stupid. They understand that getting the vaccine will stop the spread of the virus and do for them what they have wanted for the past 15 months. Get their kids back to school, them back to work and the economy back humming again. But, people are only as good as the information that they take in and when that information is garbage, they base their decisions on garbage. It’s the old saying Garbage in, Garbage out (GIGO).
Tucker Carlson is feeding his listeners garbage when it comes to the Coronavirus vaccine. Why? Why would someone in a position of great power to influence public opinion stand in the way of eliminating the virus and getting people back to work and kids back in school? Wouldn’t you rather be thinking about the possibilities of an almost normal Summer?
I don’t have enough time and you don’t have enough patience for me to attempt to answer that question.
But, do take the time for yourself to answer those questions for yourself and maybe take a stab at the one that I posed at the top of this post.
Tucker learned last year that the viewers drive the agenda. When he challenged the Trump’s legal team to present their evidence of voter fraud several weeks after the election his ratings with the FOX audience tanked. That started the migration of viewers away from FOX to OAN and Newsmax. Because Tucker was suspected of collusion with the ‘Deep State’. So Tucker Carlson doesn’t stray from his audience views too much anymore. Other FOX hosts have been vaccinated but they give their audience little encouragement to do the same. I know as a conservative Republican who spent a career in Navy medicine I don’t get it. I know this is an issue of personal freedom for some but the suspicion and anger they have over any information the government provides is discouraging.