The far-right's dangerous crusade against the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines has exacerbated vaccine hesitancy across the nation, despite the vaccines' proven safety and effectiveness at minimizing the spread of the virus that's killed over 750 thousand Americans.
Republican elected officials across the country have fought against multiple measures to encourage vaccinations, however innocuous. Republican Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida took executive steps to ban vaccine mandates in their state. Far-right Congresswoman and prominent conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has repeatedly spread disinformation suggesting the vaccines are dangerous. The Biden administration's efforts to recruit volunteers who go door to door in their communities with vaccine information have been painted as a federal overreach on par with the Nazis.
And on Thursday, the Speaker of Tennessee's House of Representatives—Cameron Sexton—condemned the Biden administration for "destroying America" in part due to "mass vaccinations."
In case it wasn't clear, the mass administering of safe and effective vaccines against the deadliest pandemic in American history is not a bad thing. Mass worldwide vaccinations would give individuals herd immunity, when the virus doesn't have enough vulnerable host to spread and further develop into deadlier, more vaccine resistant variants.
People were amazed at Sexton's tweet.
And it wasn't just Sexton's aversion to vaccinations that raised eyebrows.
Sexton has yet to elaborate.
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