Asking Trump to promote vaccines is a dangerous idea | Solomon Jones

Almost from the outset, a stark racial dynamic has influenced the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has played out in America. Thanks largely to the lies and exaggerations that characterized the Trump administration’s response to the virus, the politics of COVID-19 have become just as deadly.

I remember the early days of COVID-19, when many in my community believed that Black people could not get the virus. Not only was that untrue, the data showed that Black people were especially susceptible because we live with more preexisting conditions than our white counterparts. Centuries of systemic racism have put Black people at a disadvantage when it comes to wealth, health care, housing, employment, and countless other metrics. That’s why no one should have been surprised when the data indicated that Blacks were getting COVID-19 at three times the rate of whites, with higher death rates.

Given the history of racism in health care, one could understand why 25% of Black people and 37% of Latinos would say they are not planning to get a shot, according to a recent poll. But here’s what’s baffling: A whopping 49% of Republican men — and 47% of Trump supporters — say they won’t get the vaccine. That is not because of racism. Nor is it because they’ve been mistreated by the establishment. Heck — many of them are the establishment. So, there’s just one explanation. This is politics.

That’s why some are pushing the Biden administration to do the unthinkable. They’re suggesting Trump come out of political hiding and talk to his followers about taking the vaccine.

» READ MORE: Wolf administration won’t say whether Philly suburbs’ most vulnerable will have to travel to get COVID-19 shots by May 1

On the surface, that sounds like a great idea, but in practice, it is extremely dangerous. Imagine handing a national platform back to a man who made 30,753 false or misleading statements during his presidency. Imagine giving a man who encouraged his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol the chance to once again rile up his followers. Imagine depending on the very man whose poor leadership led to the deaths of 400,000 Americans to suddenly make things right.

It’s too late for that. After a year of listening to Trump’s message on this virus, his followers have taken his rhetoric to heart. They now believe that anyone who wears a mask is weak, that those who take the virus seriously are spineless, and that real men pretend that COVID-19 is going to disappear like a miracle.

Truth is, this virus will only disappear with mass vaccinations, and getting those shots into people’s arms didn’t start happening until Trump was on his way out the door.

Since Dec. 14, more than 109 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 21% of the total U.S. population has received at least one shot, and we are now administering over 2.4 million shots daily. But even as the number of vaccinations has rapidly increased, just 12% of Americans have been fully vaccinated.

With so many people saying they don’t want the vaccine, and with variants of the virus forcing shutdowns to resume in Europe, America is going to have to make some decisions. And those will start at the individual level. As for me, I decided early on that I would take the vaccine after talking to a number of Black doctors who I trust. While I believe that others in my community will have to decide for themselves, and I will respect whatever decisions they make, it’s my sincere hope that they will take the shot. By doing so, I believe we can save many of the Black lives we’ve been fighting and protesting and working so hard to preserve.

» READ MORE: Philly Fighting COVID disaster strikes another blow to vaccine trust in Black communities | Solomon Jones

As for the Biden administration, they are planning to spend $1.5 billion to convince people to get coronavirus shots. They will be encouraged to focus much of their effort on conservatives. Maybe that works, maybe it doesn’t, but I have a better idea.

Since Republican men form the largest group of people who say they will refuse to take the shot, why not just run commercials letting them know that their leader, Donald Trump, took the shot in January, along with his wife? Tell them that around the time Trump’s most fervent followers were risking their lives to do Trump’s bidding by storming the Capitol, Trump was looking out for himself.

So rather than giving Trump the chance to pretend he cares about his followers, just take the one-sentence vaccine push Trump made at CPAC and put it on social media.

“How unpainful that vaccine shot is, so everybody go get your shot,” Trump said during the conservative gathering.

Put that on a loop, keep Trump off the stage, and hope that his followers will listen.