The Trump administration has launched the “Building Vaccine Confidence Campaign,” a $250 million effort to convince Americans that the COVID-19 vaccines are the best hope for dealing with the virus.
Radio and digital media ads are scheduled to be rolled out in late January. The promotional campaign to “convince Americans to get vaccinated” is planned to run through September.
The American taxpayers, via Washington dealmakers, are paying market research specialists the Fors Marsh Group to create ads and promotions to convince the tens of millions of Americans voicing concerns about the safety of the vaccine to take the shots.
Facebook Joins the Effort
The heavy push to warn Americans of the dangers of COVID and why getting vaccinated is the best hope for safety is already accelerating. In a 20 November video interview between Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom Zuckerberg reminds viewers is “America’s foremost infectious disease expert,” Dr. Fauci warns, “We’re in a very precarious situation. When you look at the numbers, almost every day either breaks a record or ties a record of cases.”
In the interview, Fauci tells Zuckerberg,
“I would like to see the overwhelming majority of the country vaccinated before we get to the end of the second quarter [of 2021]. So, in that sense, I would like to see the reluctant people get vaccinated sooner rather than later. If they want to wait a month or two, that’s OK, but I don’t want them to wait six to eight to nine months.”
Millions Suspicious, Including Nurses
According to the 3 December Pew Research Center poll, about 60 percent of the U.S. public now say they will get the injections, a rise in confidence from the September poll showing 51 percent. But, as reported on the Pew Research Center website, “A majority says they would be uncomfortable being among the first to take it, and a sizable minority appears certain to pass on getting vaccinated.”
About 20 percent of those polled say they are firmly against getting the shots and are unlikely to change their minds. This leaves about 20 percent who currently are hesitant but whom the multi-million-dollar “Building Vaccine Confidence” effort seeks to convince.
Additional polls show women to be more cautious about getting vaccinated than men, with Black Americans the most resistant.
Most notably, health care workers, who are among the most vulnerable to getting infected by the virus, are not convinced the vaccines are safe.
According to a 29 October report by the American Nurses Foundation,
“Nearly half (44%) of nurses say they are not comfortable having conversations with their patients about COVID-19 vaccines, yet 65% said that they have provided direct care to patients with a known or suspected case of COVID-19 since February.”
Given that nurses, according to the report, are “the most trusted group of health care professionals,” they will play an influential role in how the public perceives the vaccines being rolled out.
Having concern nurses are not fully onboard the pro-vaccination campaign, the Executive Director of the American Nurses Foundation, Kate Judge, stated,
“Any barriers that impede access to information and education must be eradicated now. This is especially important to engage with communities of color. Generations of Black Americans do not trust our nation’s health care system due to a longstanding history of health care inequities.”
Political Divide
According to the 3 December report from the Pew Research Center,
“Democrats’ trust in scientists has risen since January 2019 while that of Republicans has dropped over the same time period. As a result, political differences over this assessment have widened. Democrats are now 33 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say they have a great deal of confidence in scientists.”
As political scientist Matthew Motta of Oklahoma State University stated, “Our intentions to vaccinate are very much tied to what our political leaders are saying.”
President-elect Joe Biden has already declared, “I want to make it clear to the public: You should have confidence in this.” But, he added, “There is no political influence. These are first-rate scientists taking their time looking at all of the elements that need to be looked at. Scientific integrity led us to this point.”
Mr. Biden then boosted his pro-vaccination stand with a much-publicized 21 December public photo-op of a nurse injecting the vaccine into his arm.
TREND FORECAST: As we have forecast, there will be strong “Anti-Vax” movements in the United States and western nations as vaccination mandates are imposed on the general population. In the coming months and years, new freedom/populist/nationalist political parties will be formed in nations across the world to counter ruling establishments which impose dictatorial rules and regulations in violation of Constitutions and the Bill of Rights.
Also, as we have reported, it should be noted that anti-vax movements in the U.S. and some European countries were gaining strength before the COVID War began.
