
GOP vaccine resistance confronting Biden has deep roots
CNN
The worrisome Omicron variant lends fresh urgency to President Joe Biden's months-long grind to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus. He needs it.
That 78 million Americans still resist protective shots confounds anyone examining the medical evidence of the vaccines' effectiveness. But the evidence of history, turbocharged by the modern Republican Party's extremism, makes vaccine resistance no mystery -- and Biden's effort a slog even after nearly 800,000 deaths from Covid-19.
Just as they've elevated voting restrictions over the protection of democratic elections, Republican officials have elevated exploiting the pandemic over ending it. While GOP attorneys general bogged down vaccine mandates in court, GOP senators last week threatened to shutter the federal government to block them -- even as some Republicans slam Biden for failing to contain the pandemic.