Fauci blames “ideological rigidity” for political division in vaccination debate: “I just don’t get it”



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Dr Anthony Fauci blamed “ideological rigidity” as a deterrent to vaccination efforts in the face of the growing threat of more virulent variants of COVID-19.

Just under half of all eligible Americans have received a full coronavirus vaccination, but the Delta and Lambda variants threaten those advances. The Biden administration continued to urge Americans to receive the vaccines as soon as possible, but in some states demand for the vaccines has plummeted, even with many supplies now available.

Fauci criticized the policy for dissuading an otherwise successful vaccination effort, with the majority of U.S. states and territories administering at least 75% of their first doses of vaccine, according to the CDC.

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“I mean, it’s ideological rigidity,” Fauci said on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “I think there’s no reason not to get the shot. Why do we have states and red places in the South that are very highly ideological in a way, not wanting to get the shot – the vaccinations have nothing to do with politics. ”

Fauci also called scenes from this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) “gruesome” when attendees applauded following a comment that the government was unable to ” achieve 90% vaccination.

“It’s horrible,” Fauci said. “I mean, they’re applauding someone who says it’s a good thing for people not to try and save their lives.”

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“I just don’t understand,” he added. “I do not understand that.”

Fauci is now both director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to Biden. He has repeatedly pointed to political issues over the past year as complications in tackling the virus and rolling out vaccinations.

A recent Gallup poll showed that one in five Americans had no plan to get the vaccine.

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Part of the concern of health officials is the increased virulence of the newer variants: the Delta variant is estimated to be around 40-60% more virulent – although vaccines maintain greater than 90% effectiveness against serious illness and disease. death – while the Lambda variant has become the dominant variant in Peru within a very short period of time, however, authorities have yet to qualify this variant as a concern.

“If you are not vaccinated you should be concerned,” Fauci told ABC’s “This Week”. “We know from extensive experience, not only in our own country, here in the United States, but in other countries, that the vaccines we use work extremely well against the Delta variant, especially in preventing an advanced disease that would lead to hospitalization, and possibly death under certain circumstances.

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“This is the reason why we are very worried is that we have a kind of schism between some states and some regions that have a very low level of immunization, which is really unfortunate because we want to make sure that these people are protected for their own safety and their own life, but that of their families in their community, ”he added.

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