As we wait for Congress to take its unsweet time with the COVID relief and stimulus bill - thanks to nonsensical GOP grandstanding to obstruct President Joe Biden and Democrats - we continue to learn more about the Biden war effort to produce enough vaccine for every adult in the country by the end of May.
We also learn more about another obstruction, a less intentional but far more dangerous one - vaccine resistance by nearly a third of Republican voters who staunchly favored Donald Trump. This one threatens the science-based push for a 70-85% vaccinated populace in order for the U.S. to reach herd immunity to the novel coronavirus.
Consider this Monday morning story from The Washington Post:
"Margaret, an 80-year-old retiree who lives outside Tulsa, has spent the past year living in fear of the coronavirus. She's constantly worn masks, toted hand sanitizer and used drive-throughs to run her errands. Her age and preexisting health conditions - including heart failure, diabetes and blood clots - put her at elevated risk if she gets sick. But unlike many at-risk Americans seeking safety and an end to the pandemic, Margaret refuses to get a coronavirus vaccine.
"'There's too many unanswered questions,'" Margaret told The Post, agreeing to be interviewed only if her last name was withheld "because of concerns she might be harassed." She fears possible vaccine side effects, like the headaches that some people have gotten from the second shot.
Some, like Margaret, worry the vaccines were developed too quickly, The Post wrote. Others argue without evidence that many vaccines are unsafe or will make them sick. Still more echo Trump's repeated contention while in office that the coronavirus threat is overblown, and some simply don't trust the government's involvement.
We've seen Facebook posts of late that we should thank Trump for the vaccines which Biden is "trying to take credit for."
Well, let's give credit where credit is due. The Trump administration deserves credit for Operation Warp Speed, the monthslong federal initiative that sped COVID-19 vaccine development in less than a year.
But from there, the Trump administration dropped the ball and failed to follow through with options to purchase more than 100 million first doses for our nation of 331.4 million people, most of whom will need two doses. Nor did Trump fully utilize his own August 2020 announced plan to use the Defense Production Act to ramp up vaccine production.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service described the Trump administration's use of the act as "sporadic and relatively narrow," noting that most of the $1 billion Congress allocated under the Cares Act for purchases of medical equipment and protective gear under the Defense Production Act was shifted to the Defense Department, which spent most of the money - $688 million - on semiconductors, shipbuilding and space surveillance.
Trump had set a target to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020, but by Dec. 31, fewer than three million had received one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When Biden took office, about 16.5 million vaccines had been administered.
From there, the Biden administration had to scramble to make up for lost time. Biden, in his first week in office, signed three executive orders to create a framework to leverage the Defense Protection Act to boost supplies for manufacturing vaccines; ramp up the availability of at-home, drug store and doctors' office virus tests; and produce more masks, shields and gloves. He later announced plants to deploy at least 1,000 active-duty military personnel to support mass vaccination efforts.
As of Sunday, 90.3 million vaccines have been administered. More than 30 million people are fully vaccinated, and another 58.8 million people have received the first of two needed injections. The U.S. now is administering more than 2.2 million shots a day, and Biden says the U.S. will have vaccines for every adult in the country by the end of May.
But back to the issue of vaccine hesitancy: Part of it - again give credit where credit is due - was engendered by Trump himself, who spent years raising questions about vaccine safety, dismissed the value of flu shots while president, said COVID was no worse than the flu and opted not to publicly disclose that he was vaccinated against COVID-19 in January.
In fact, it wasn't until last month's Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, that Trump first clearly said to conservative voters: "Go get your shot."
But if you are a Republican (or know one) among that remaining 70% of the GOP that is smarter than Trump, you have an important role to play - especially in our predominantly Trump-supporting region: Don't let the politics of the Trump base continue to dismiss the vaccines, masks or the virus itself.
Just Monday, the CDC's long-awaited guidance to fully vaccinated Americans frees them to take some liberties that the unvaccinated should not - like gathering indoors "with others who are fully vaccinated" without masking and distancing.
Think fun dinners again, birthday parties, even political party functions.
Make it clear to the resisters: Everyone should get a vaccine. Because until then, with new COVID variants and misguided unmasking, we won't really be able to return to our lives as we knew them before.
Please - let's all be smarter. Not sicker.