Top Republicans’ new tone on vaccines having little effect on hardcore holdouts

High-profile politicians have changed their tune on Covid inoculation but pollsters say part of their base remains unswayed

Almost like a switch had been flipped, a set of high-profile Republican political figures and conservative media personalities recently shifted their stance on the Covid-19 shots and became more outspoken and proactive in urging Americans to get vaccinated.

Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama, the state with the lowest proportion of fully vaccinated people in the country, said last week it was time to shame vaccination holdouts. Commentator Sean Hannity, who had previously called the pandemic a hoax, offered an on-air argument for viewers to get vaccinated. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, who had been selling merchandise mocking the use of masks, said the anti-Covid vaccines “are saving lives”. The Republican congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana, where only 36% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, finally got inoculated publicly after refraining from doing so.

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Coronavirus | The Guardian

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