Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is under fire again for promoting conspiracy theories, weeks after he falsely claimed, multiple times, that the failed siege of the U.S. Capitol this past January was carried out by antifa, rather than pro-Trump extremists.
Now, as officials urge people to take the vaccine for a pandemic that's killed nearly 600 thousand Americans, Johnson is feeding the frenzy of far-right conspiracy theories that the vaccine push has a more insidious agenda.
Johnson made the comments on The Vicki McKenna Show, a Madison, Wisconsin radio program.
Listen below.
Johnson said:
""The science tells us that vaccines are 95 percent effective, so if you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not? What is it to you? You've got a vaccine and the science is telling you it's very, very effective. So why is this big push to make sure everybody gets a vaccine and to the point where you better impose it, you're going to shame people, you're going to force them to carry a card to prove that they've been fully vaccinated so they can participate in society. I'm getting highly suspicious of what's happening here."
Mass vaccination is necessary because viruses mutate each time they multiply. If at least 70 percent of Americans aren't vaccinated, the virus has enough breeding ground to spread, evolve, and eventually morph into a variant that renders the previously administered vaccines ineffective.
Johnson's apparent ignorance of this saw significant outcry.
Johnson is up for reelection in 2022, and while he's undecided on running again, his comments have reinvigorated the effort to defeat him in the 2022 midterms.
Senator Johnson is fully vaccinated.
Judge Judy Eye Roll GIF
@elonmusk/X
Loop Home GIF by Homepoet.de
Solar Energy GIF by Nexamp
Shave Shaving GIF by Shawn Mendes
The Sandlot Wow GIF