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Biden Mystified by Opposition to COVID Vaccinations

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - U.S. President Joe Biden says he is mystified about
   continuing opposition by some Americans to getting vaccinated against
   the coronavirus, particularly among Republicans who opposed his
   election.

   "I honest to God thought that, once we guaranteed we had enough vaccine
   for everybody, things would start to calm down," Biden told ABC News on
   Tuesday. "Well, they have calmed down a great deal."

   Still, Biden told ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, "I don't quite
   understand -- you know -- I just don't understand this sort of macho
   thing about, 'I'm not gonna get the vaccine. I have a right as an
   American, my freedom to not do it.'

   "Well, why don't you be a patriot? Protect other people," Biden said.

   Biden, who was inoculated before his inauguration two months ago, said
   getting vaccinated let him show Americans it is safe and also was
   personally satisfying "because I can hug my grandkids now."

   "They come over to the house," the president said. "I can see them. I'm
   able to be with them."

   More than 35 million Americans are fully vaccinated, about 13% of adult
   Americans. Former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania were both
   vaccinated before he left office.

   On Tuesday, Trump told Fox News, "I would recommend it, and I would
   recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it, and a lot of
   those people voted for me, frankly."

   However, he added, "But you know, again, we have our freedoms, and we
   have to live by that, and I agree with that also."

   Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden's top medical adviser and the country's top
   infectious-disease expert, told NBC's "Meet the Press" show last Sunday
   that anyone's reluctance to getting vaccinated was "disturbing" and
   makes "absolutely no sense."

   Three recent national polls showed that Republicans who voted for Trump
   were far more reluctant to get vaccinated than Democrats who supported
   Biden.

   A recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll found that 47% of Trump voters and 41% of
   Republicans said they will not get a shot when eligible.

   A CBS News poll in recent days found 33% of Republicans won't get
   inoculated when it becomes available to them, while just 10% of
   Democrats took the same view. A Monmouth University found 59% of
   Republicans were either hesitant to get vaccinated or said they would
   likely never get inoculated. By contrast, 23% of Democrats felt the
   same way.

   Fauci called the political split on vaccinations baffling.

   "It makes absolutely no sense," he said. "We've got to dissociate
   political persuasion from what's common sense, no-brainer, public
   health things."