aoc/Instagram, drrandpaul/Instagram
December 22, 2020, 7:00 am
As the COVID-19 vaccination very slowly starts to roll out in the United States, a lot of noise has been made regarding who should get it, who is getting it, and who should go right to the end of the line.
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A particular frustration shared by many who may not be able to get vaccinated until the second half of next year, due in part to the limited supply of the vaccine the Trump administration ordered for citizens, is that Republican politicians who constantly downplayed or dismissed the virus over the past 10 months have jumped right to the front of the line to take the vaccine, even as frontline workers wait.
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Senator Rand Paul, however, decided to try to turn any frustration over members of Congress getting vaccinated into an attack on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Republican default setting in a post-Hillary Clinton world.
“It is inappropriate for me — who has already gotten the virus/has immunity — to get in front of elderly/healthcare workers,” he tweeted on Monday. “Same goes for AOC or any young healthy person. They should be among last, not first.”
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In general, despite the fact that healthy, young people can die from COVID-19 too, yes, they should get vaccinated after elderly people and frontline workers. However, we’re in a very peculiar situation in the United States, where about 40% of Americans currently aren’t planning on getting the vaccine.
This has revived an old tradition — famous, powerful people getting vaccinated on TV, to reassure the public. Elvis did it with the polio vaccine back in 1956; Joe Biden did it with the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday. And others like Ian McKellan, Vice President Mike Pence, and, yes, Ocasio-Cortez, have also gotten the vaccine and shared that info publicly.
And AOC was ready to hit back at Paul to explain why she ultimately decided to be among those to “jump the line.”
“Gee, maybe if the GOP hadn’t spent so much time undermining public faith in science, masks, & COVID itself, I wouldn’t have to weigh the potential misinfo consequences of what [would] happen if leaders urged people to take a new vaccine that we weren’t taking ourselves!” she wrote.
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There’s a debate to be had over whether AOC made the best decision or not, but her reasoning is valid. And Paul’s decision to turn another random thing into a critique of the Congresswoman rather than point the finger at any number of his Republican colleagues who a) are taking the vaccine, and/or b) were spreading misinformation for months that now makes Americans not think vaccination is good or necessary, just goes to show that his motives in attacking her have nothing to do with public interest.
*First Published: December 22, 2020, 7:00 am
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