For weeks, right-wing lawmakers and media personalities have embraced skepticism of vaccines whose safety and effectiveness has been proven to dramatically slow the spread of the virus that's killed over 600 thousand Americans.
Now, as stronger, deadlier variants of the virus have led to stratospheric increases in cases, some right-wing figures are trying to convince their voters to potentially save their lives by getting the vaccine.
Now, former President Donald Trump's second White House press secretary and current candidate for Governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is joining that chorus.
In a new op-ed for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Sanders elaborated on why she chose to get vaccinated, heaping praise upon her former boss for its rollout.
She writes:
"What I found was simple: Dr. Fauci and the 'because science says so' crowd of arrogant, condescending politicians and bureaucrats were wrong about more than their mandates and shutdowns that have inflicted incalculable harm on our people and economy. They also misjudged the Trump vaccine plan, which rolled out just as safely, quickly, and effectively as the Trump administration promised."
She went on to slam President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, suggesting the lagging vaccination rate was due to giving insufficient credit to Trump:
"If President Biden, Vice President Harris, and others on the left truly care about increasing the vaccination rate and saving lives, they should admit they were wrong to cast doubt on Operation Warp Speed and give President Trump and his team the credit they are due for the development of a safe and effective vaccine in record time."
While the need for unvaccinated people to take the vaccine is undisputed, people took issue with Sanders's argument.
But even her critics said that if heaping praise upon Trump results in more vaccinations, so be it.
The op-ed comes just days after Sanders vowed not to enforce basic safety guidelines, like mask mandates, if the Delta variant continues to spiral out of control among the unvaccinated.
