The Martinsburg, West Virginia COVID vaccination center is so close to Todd Engle’s home he could almost touch it from his backyard. But like many Republicans in the United States, he’s out of the question.
“They will have to put me in prison”, assures AFP this man of 58 years, camouflage cap screwed on the head, sitting on his porch. “I really don’t trust it. “
Reluctance to get vaccinated is very often linked to a lack of confidence, but in the United States, still plagued by the extreme divisions that marked the campaign for the presidential election in which Donald Trump was accused of downplaying the pandemic , the question is also political.
“This is the usual distrust, Power Thousand,” analyzes Neil Johnson, professor at George Washington University.
He sees a combination of factors: a belief that the media has exaggerated the pandemic to harm the ex-Republican president, a long-standing resistance to vaccines and a distrust of the government.
These Republicans who, like Todd, do not want to receive their dose, in his eyes risk dangerously slowing down the American vaccination campaign against COVID-19, which is currently progressing at high speed in a country where the coronavirus has already killed more than 540,000 people.
Nationally, 41% of Republicans say they do not want to be vaccinated, compared to just 11% of Democrats, according to a poll released last week.
West Virginia, a very hilly state among the poorest in America, voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the November presidential election. But not all of its Republicans are anti-vaccine.
“Not worth it”
Because the vaccination center behind Todd Engle is still operating at an impressive rate.
Angela Gray is one of the masked nurses and sometimes administers up to 1,500 doses in a day.
“I try not to pay attention to politics,” she says. “But I’ve seen a lot of Republicans get vaccinated. “
Angela has also seen several local elected officials defend the vaccine, even roll up their own sleeves and go for a dose publicly, a crucial effort to convince skeptics.
And Donald Trump himself on Tuesday gave his most explicit support for the national vaccination campaign since he left office in January.
“I recommend it, and I recommend it to those who don’t want it, and many of those voted for me,” the former president said in an interview, pointing to his $ 74 million. voters.
“It’s an excellent vaccine, it’s a vaccine that is safe and that works,” he insisted.
But for many of his supporters, like Christine Miller, treasurer of the local Republican Party, the billionaire’s words come too late.
She is not planning on going for her dose at the moment.
“The risk is not worth it”, sweeps this 63-year-old woman, yet prone to chronic bronchitis, and who survived cancer.
For Professor Neil Johnson, this reluctance risks delaying the moment when the United States will achieve collective immunity, synonymous with a return to a more normal life.
Vaccination campaigns manage to reach a large part of the population, he explains, but their success depends on the possibility of inoculating an overwhelming majority of people.
If and when this stage is reached in Martinsburg, it will most certainly be without Republican Party member Betty DeHaven.
“I will have to be forced to take the vaccine,” promises the septuagenarian bluntly. “And that’s my right. “
