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      US likely to see Covid cases rise from Omicron subvariant, Fauci says

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      US likely to see Covid cases rise from Omicron subvariant, Fauci saysBiden’s chief medical adviser also says the US is ‘clearly going in the right direction’ on the pandemic The US is likely to see an increase in Covid cases like that in Europe and the UK thanks to the BA.2 virus subvariant but not a dangerous surge, Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.Warning signs for US as Covid cases rise in Europe Read moreJoe Biden’s chief medical adviser also said the US was “clearly going in the right direction” on the coronavirus pandemic.BA.2, Fauci told ABC’s This Week, “has a degree of transmission advantage over the original Omicron [variant], but not multifold advantage. So, it’s about 50% to 60% or so more transmissible, which means ultimately it might take over as a dominant variant.“Clearly, throughout the world it’s about 80-plus percent, 85% of the isolate. In the United States, it’s still somewhere around 30%.“So it does have an increased transmission capability. However, when you look at the cases, they do not appear to be any more severe and they do not appear to evade immune responses either from vaccines or prior infection.“So the bottom line is we likely will see an uptick in cases as we’ve seen in the European countries, particularly the UK, where … they have BA.2. They have a relaxation of some restrictions such as indoor masking and there’s a waning of immunity.“Hopefully, we won’t see a surge. I don’t think we will. The easiest way to prevent that is to continue to get people vaccinated. And for those who have been vaccinated, to continue to get them boosted.”Fauci said he did not see any reason to reimpose public health restrictions relaxed under a federal approach meant to focus on areas with pressure on hospital systems.“But you always have to have the flexibility,” he said.“Remember, when the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] came out with the modification of their metrics, which would lead to the guidelines of what regions or counties in the country should have a masking indoors, they made it very clear that … if we do see a significant surge, particularly one that might result in increased hospitalisations, we have to be prepared to pivot and perhaps reinstitute some of those restrictions.“But right now, at this point, I don’t see that.”More than 970,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the US. Fauci said vaccination and booster rates still needed to be improved and said Congress should build-up supplies of anti-virals, tests and booster shots.“We just can’t stand still,” he said, “particularly as we appear to be in somewhat of a lull … where cases continue to come down, deaths continue to come down and hospitalisations [too].‘Mosquito in a nudist colony’: Republican Ron Johnson targets Fauci and Hunter BidenRead more“That’s no time at all to declare victory because this virus has fooled us before, and we really must be prepared for the possibility that we might get another variant and we don’t want to be caught flatfooted on that.”Fauci, 81 and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has served seven presidents since 1984. He has said he will consider retiring when the pandemic is done.Asked if he was any nearer such a decision, he told ABC: “I’m not so sure. I want to make sure we’re really out of this before I really seriously consider doing anything different.“We’re still in this. We have a way to go. I think we’re clearly going in the right direction. Hope we stay that way.”TopicsAnthony FauciOmicron variantCoronavirusInfectious diseasesUS politicsBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

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      CDC contemplating change to mask guidance in coming weeks

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      CDC contemplating change to mask guidance in coming weeksDirector Rochelle Walensky notes recent declines in Covid cases, hospital admissions and deaths The leading US health officials said on Wednesday that the nation is moving closer to the point that Covid-19 is no longer a “constant crisis” as more cities, businesses and sports venues began lifting pandemic restrictions around the country.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing that the government is contemplating a change to its mask guidance in the coming weeks.Noting recent declines in Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths, she acknowledged “people are so eager” for health officials to ease masking rules and other measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.“We all share the same goal – to get to a point where Covid-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives, a time when it won’t be a constant crisis – rather something we can prevent, protect against, and treat,” Walensky said.With the Omicron variant waning and Americans eager to move beyond the virus, government and business leaders have been out ahead of the CDC in ending virus measures in the last week, including ordering workers back to offices, eliminating mask mandates and no longer requiring proof of vaccine to get into restaurants, bars and sports and entertainment arenas.The efforts have been gaining more steam each day.Philadelphia officials on Wednesday said the city’s vaccine mandate for restaurants was immediately lifted, though indoor mask mandates remain in place for now.At Disney World, vaccinated guests will no longer have to wear masks at the Florida theme park starting Thursday.Professional sports teams including the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards and Capitols have stopped requiring proof of vaccine for fans.Health commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said Philadelphia’s average daily case count had dropped to 189 cases a day in the city of more than 1.5 million people.Bettigole said the plunge in infections has been steeper in Philadelphia than elsewhere in the state or the country, making it easier to lift the vaccine mandate for restaurants and other businesses announced in mid-December and that fully went into effect just this month.“Our goal has always been to be the least restrictive as possible while ensuring safety,” she said.She added that the vaccine mandate helped spur “a very large” increase in pediatric vaccinations, pushing the city way ahead of the national average for first doses among kids ages five to 11. More than 53% of Philadelphia residents in that age group have received a first dose, compared with closer to 30% nationally, she said.In Provincetown, Massachusetts, a seaside town that became a coronavirus hot spot with an early outbreak of the Delta variant last summer, officials on Tuesday lifted a mask mandate and vaccine requirement for indoor spaces like restaurants and bars.Town manager Alex Morse said the community of about 3,000 recorded zero active cases last week among Provincetown residents – something that hasn’t happened since the surge following last year’s July 4 celebrations.“We are learning to live with, and mitigate, the impact of the virus on our community,” Morse said.Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations have fallen sharply in the US, with the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases dropping from about 453,000 two weeks ago to about 136,000 as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.Hospitalizations are at levels similar to September, when the US was emerging from the Delta variant surge. Almost 65% of Americans are fully vaccinated.“As a result of all this progress and the tools we now have, we are moving to a time where Covid isn’t a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat,” said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.Walensky said the CDC “will soon put guidance in place that is relevant and encourages prevention measures when they are most needed to protect public health and our hospitals”.She suggested any changes will take into account measures of community transmission, as well as hospitalization rates or other gauges of whether infected people are becoming severely ill. They also would consider available bed space in hospitals.Several states with indoor mask mandates announced last week they would be lifted in coming weeks, also citing promising numbers.Two music festivals that draw thousands of people to the California desert town of Indio in April and May, Coachella and Stagecoach, also said this week there will be no vaccination, masking or testing mandates, in accordance with local guidelines.Walensky said the CDC wants to give most people “a break from things like mask-wearing” when circumstances improve, though be able to mask up again if things worsen.TopicsCoronavirusTrump administrationUS politicsInfectious diseasesVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

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      Fauci: Omicron ‘raging through the world’ and travel increases Covid risks

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      Fauci: Omicron ‘raging through the world’ and travel increases Covid risks
      Chief White House medical adviser: breakthroughs will happen
      22,000 new cases but New York says hospitals can cope
      Harris: White House did not see Omicron coming
      The Omicron variant of Covid-19 has “extraordinary spreading capabilities”, the top US infectious diseases expert said on Sunday, and promises to bring a bleak winter as it continues “raging through the world”.Doug Ericksen, state senator who fought vaccine mandates, dies at 52Read moreDr Anthony Fauci’s warning came ahead of the busy holiday travel period, which he said would elevate the risk of infection even in vaccinated people.In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Fauci, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to get booster shots and wear masks.He also appeared to attempt damage control over Vice-President Kamala Harris’s contention that the Biden administration “didn’t see” the Omicron or Delta variants coming.Harris’s comments on Friday were “taken out of context”, Fauci insisted, and referred to the “extraordinary number of mutations” of Covid-19 rather than any lack of readiness.“We were well prepared and expected that we were going to see variants,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”Fauci looked ahead to a scheduled national address by Biden on Tuesday, in which he said the president would “upscale” elements of the White House Covid winter plan.“He’s going to stress several things,” Fauci said. “… Getting people boosted who are vaccinated, getting children vaccinated, making testing more available, having surge teams out, because we know we’re going to need them because there will be an increased demand on hospitalisation.”The White House reset comes at the end of a week in which the US surpassed 800,000 deaths from coronavirus and saw a 17% surge in cases and a 9% rise in deaths.Medical experts have warned of an Omicron-fueled “viral blizzard” sweeping the country. Biden has spoken of a “winter of severe illness and death” among the unvaccinated.Fauci repeated such dire predictions on CNN’s State of the Union.“One thing that’s clear is [Omicron’s] extraordinary capability of spreading, its transmissibility capability,” he said. “It is just raging through the world.“This virus is extraordinary. It has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days in certain regions of the country, which means it’s going to take over. If you look at what it’s done in South Africa, what it’s doing in the UK, and what it’s starting to do right now, the president is correct.“It is going to be tough. We can’t walk away from that because with the Omicron that we’re dealing with it is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter. We are going to see significant stress in some regions of the country, on the hospital system, particularly in those areas where you have a low level of vaccination.”Many cases of Omicron are so-called “breakthrough” infections. Florida, one of the hardest-hit states throughout the pandemic, reported on Sunday that about 30% of new infections were in people vaccinated but yet to receive a booster.Fauci and other experts have said immunisations alone will not prevent the spread of Omicron, but are confident that the risk of serious disease or death is vastly reduced in those who are vaccinated.Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told CBS’s Face the Nation he was concerned about the effects of Omicron on those who are not vaccinated.New York reports 22,000 new Covid cases – but hospitals say they can copeRead more“It’s a brand new version and so different that it has the properties to potentially be evasive of the vaccines and other measures that we’ve taken,” he said.“The big message for today is if you’ve had vaccines and a booster you’re very well protected against Omicron causing you severe disease. Anybody who’s in that 60% of Americans who are eligible for a booster but haven’t yet gotten one, this is the week to do it. Do not wait.”In New York, authorities said 22,000 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, eclipsing the previous record since testing became widely available.Meanwhile, a study in South Africa this week suggested that the Pfizer vaccine has a weaker efficacy against Omicron in patients who have received two doses than it does against the Delta variant.The research by Discovery Health, the country’s largest medical insurance administrator, calculated a 70% protection from hospitalization compared with the unvaccinated, and 33% protection against infection.The group said that represented a drop from 93% hospitalization protection and 80% infection prevention for Delta.TopicsCoronavirusBiden administrationAnthony FauciUS politicsInfectious diseasesVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

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      Fauci urges Americans to get Covid booster as US nears 800,000 deaths

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      Fauci urges Americans to get Covid booster as US nears 800,000 deathsLeading infectious diseases official warns Omicron variant appears to be able to ‘evade’ protection of two initial doses The US government’s leading infectious diseases official, Anthony Fauci, on Sunday stepped up calls for Americans to get a Covid-19 booster shot, as the US is approaching 800,000 lives lost to coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.Fauci warned that the Omicron variant appeared to be able to “evade” the protection of two initial doses of the mRNA-type Covid vaccines – Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s – as well as post-infection therapies such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma.Omicron is spurring new fears as US infections begin to surge again, with infections currently still led by the highly-transmissable Delta variant that has dominated since the summer.Fauci said an extra vaccine shot provides “optimal” protection against Omicron, even though the government’s official designation of “fully vaccinated” remained at two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, or one of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which was developed by another method.“Preliminary data show that when you get a booster, for example a third shot of an mRNA, it raises the level of protection high enough that it then does do well against the Omicron,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president, said on ABC.It was, he said: “Another reason to encourage people who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated, but particularly those who are vaccinated to get boosted because that diminution in protection seems to go way back up again. If you want to be optimally protected, you really should get a booster.”Although vaccination rates, particularly boosters, have picked up significantly in recent weeks, about 40% of eligible adults in the US are still not fully protected, and the take-up rate for children ages five to 11, who are newly eligible, remains below 20%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.“Follow the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines, that when you are in an indoor congregate setting and you don’t know the vaccination status of the people around you, wear a mask. Masking is not going to be forever but it can get us out of the very difficult situation we’re in now,” Fauci said.Experts are still discovering the characteristics of Omicron. CDC director Rochelle Walensky last week said that very preliminary data so far showed Omicron was comparatively mild.Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, meanwhile, defended his new vaccine mandate for private employees.“Omicron is here, it’s all over the country, this variant moves fast,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union show.“We have to move faster. What I hear from our business community, their greatest fear is shutdowns, going back to where we were in 2020, to restrictions, to people losing their livelihood.“The greatest threat to employment is that Omicron and the cold winter months are going to supercharge Covid and take us backwards. Since I put mandates in place starting in August, we have seen over a million more doses, 71% of our people fully vaccinated. A lot of those people made the decision because the mandate was there,” he said.A federal judge is set to rule on Tuesday on a challenge to De Blasio’s vaccine mandate for the city’s 160,000 public sector employees, including police, firefighters and sanitation workers.TopicsAnthony FauciCoronavirusInfectious diseasesUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Why doesn’t Biden mail free Covid tests to all Americans? | Ross Barkan

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      Why doesn’t Biden mail free Covid tests to all Americans? Ross BarkanIn the United States, testing varies widely by city, county and state. In the UK, tests are free and sent to your home, as it should be On Monday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, boasted about the Biden administration’s coronavirus testing apparatus. “We’ve quadrupled the size of our testing plan. We’ve cut the cost significantly over the last few months,” Psaki told reporters, noting Americans will now be able to get the costs of tests reimbursed by their private insurers.“Why not make them free and give them out everywhere?” a reporter asked.“Should we just send one to every American?” Psaki asked, beginning to smile. When the reporter answered “maybe”, the press secretary dug in. “What happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost and what happens after that?”Psaki was straining to make the question seem absurd. There are more than 300 million Americans. How can the United States government just mail a test to every person?Her sarcasm revealed a dismal truth: if America is no longer unique in struggling through the pandemic, adequate testing remains in woefully short supply. The Biden administration has failed, like the Trump administration, to make free tests available everywhere. And in that failure, America has fallen behind the rest of the world.In Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom, free packs of Covid-19 rapid lateral tests are available to order daily. Germany has reintroduced free testing as cases continue to surge. South Korea, long a global leader when it comes to aggressively testing for coronavirus, even has free tests for pets.Meanwhile, in the United States, testing varies widely by city, county and state. New York City, battered by the original wave of coronavirus, now has free and easily accessible testing sites in most neighborhoods, where results can be learned within the hour. Other localities are still charging money and taking days to return tests. In rural areas, it can be especially difficult to get tested quickly for Covid-19.At-home tests are now available in most large pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens. A package can cost more than $20. For many Americans, wrangling with a test that can outstrip the cost of dinner is just not worth it.The new Biden plan is convoluted. Instead of subsidizing the cost of tests so they are freely available in stores or following the New York model of paying for testing sites in underserved areas, the Biden administration will compel private health insurers to reimburse people who buy over the counter, at-home rapid tests. Ultimately, this puts the onus on the individual to wade through paperwork or battle with an insurance company to receive a proper reimbursement. There will be Americans who won’t even bother.For those who lack health insurance, Biden’s initiative offers little. The federal government will buy another 25m tests to give to community health centers and rural clinics, a decent gesture that doesn’t account for those who either don’t live close enough to such places or may be passed over if the tests don’t happen to reach their facilities.The plan, ultimately, is frustratingly piecemeal and reflects the byzantine approach to healthcare the American government continues to take. Instead of a universal provider akin to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service or Canada’s single-payer system, America’s healthcare regime remains a predatory patchwork.Private insurance is expensive and inefficient. Comprehensive public insurance is open only to those who are very poor, old, or work for the government. The ailing American healthcare system has been on full display during the pandemic, with those who survive hospital stays sometimes returning home with enormous medical bills. Other Americans, fearing costs, avoid medical visits altogether.A well-funded rapid testing regime could help, along with vaccination and anti-viral treatments, restore normalcy. Coronavirus, as we now know, can still spread among the vaccinated, and the Omicron variant might increase the number of breakthrough cases. This new reality will require a much greater degree of testing than we now have and force the Biden administration, Psaki included, to take it all a lot more seriously. Rapid, accurate testing can make indoor gatherings safer and ensure those with Covid don’t readily infect others. The misery we all have lived through may begin to subside if the federal government does what it should do and guarantees every American a right to a free, available test.TopicsCoronavirusOpinionJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsInfectious diseasescommentReuse this content More

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      Fauci: US could face ‘fifth wave’ of Covid as Omicron variant nears

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      Fauci: US could face ‘fifth wave’ of Covid as Omicron variant nears
      Collins and Fauci emphasise need for vaccines and boosters
      Warning that variant shows signs of heightened transmissibility
      Coronavirus: live coverage
      Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday the US has “the potential to go into a fifth wave” of coronavirus infections amid rising cases and stagnating vaccination rates. He also warned that the newly discovered Omicron variant shows signs of heightened transmissibility.Biden and Harris briefed as US braces for arrival of Omicron Covid variantRead moreAs Fauci toured the US political talkshows, countries around the world including the US scrambled to guard against Omicron, which has stoked fears of vaccine resistance.A White House official told reporters Joe Biden would meet members of his Covid-19 response team, including Fauci, regarding the Omicron variant.Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, Fauci discussed why Omicron has raised such alarm.“Right now we have the window into the mutations that are in this new variant,” he said, “and they are troublesome in the fact that there are about 32 or more variants in that very important spike protein of the virus, which is the business end of the virus.“In other words, the profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get, for example, from the monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person’s been infected and possibly even against some of the vaccine-induced antibodies.“So it’s not necessarily that that’s going to happen, but it’s a strong indication that we really need to be prepared for that.”Fauci also pointed to how Covid case numbers shifted dramatically in South Africa, where Omicron was discovered, over a short period.“You were having a low level of infection, and then all of a sudden, there was this big spike … and when the South Africans looked at it, they said, ‘Oh my goodness. This is a different virus than we’ve been dealing with.’“So it clearly is giving indication that it has the capability of transmitting rapidly. That’s the thing that’s causing us now to be concerned, but also to put the pressure on ourselves now to do something about our presentation for this.”The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said no Omicron cases have been discovered in the US.Fauci told NBC: “As we all know, when you have a virus that has already gone to multiple countries, inevitably, it will be here.”On CBS, Fauci said any fifth wave of cases “will really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months”.“We have now about 62 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated,” he added, “who have not yet gotten vaccinated.“Superimpose upon that the fact that, unquestionably, the people who got vaccinated six, seven, eight, nine, 10 months ago, we’re starting to see an understandable diminution in the level of immunity. It’s called waning immunity, and it was seen more emphatically in other countries before we saw it here.”Fauci said an increase in immunization rates and booster shots might prevent another surge – but the US had to act fast.“So if we now do what I’m talking about in an intense way, we may be able to blunt that,” Fauci said. “If we don’t do it successfully, it is certainly conceivable and maybe likely that we will see another bit of a surge. How bad it gets is dependent upon us and how we mitigate.”Politically charged resistance to vaccine mandates and other public health measures would seem to make a rapid increase in US vaccination rates unlikely.While more than 70% of US adults are fully vaccinated, the most recent CDC data indicated that cases had increased 16% over the prior week’s seven-day average. By Sunday there had been 48,202,506 cases in the US with 776, 537 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.Another senior US government scientist, the National Institutes of Health director, Francis Collins, discussed the Omicron variant on Sunday.“I think the main thing that has us focused on this,” he told CNN’s State of the Union, “and it’s caused a lot of us to be sort of 24/7 on Zoom calls in the last four days, is that it has so many mutations”.Collins also said there were “good reasons to think it will probably be OK but we need to know the real answers to that and that’s going to take two or three weeks”.On Friday, Biden said the US would follow much of the rest of the world and impose restrictions on travel from South Africa and seven other countries. The restrictions, which Biden called “as a precautionary measure until we have more information”, will go into effect on Monday.Collins told CNN: “I know, America, you’re really tired of hearing these things, but the virus is not tired of us and it’s shape-shifting itself. If you imagine we’re on a racetrack here … it’s trying to catch up with us, and we have to use every kind of tool in our toolbox to keep that from getting into a situation that makes this worse.“We can do this but we have to do it all together.”Boris Johnson ‘ignored’ my plan to tackle deadly Covid variants – senior officialRead moreOn CBS, Fauci was also asked about Republican attacks on his reputation, over federal research prior to the coronavirus pandemic and about his role in the response under the Trump administration.“Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this,” he said. “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous. To me, that’s more dangerous than the slings and the arrows that get thrown at me.”Asked if he thought attacks were meant to scapegoat him and deflect attention from Donald Trump’s failures, Fauci said: “You have to be asleep not to figure that one out.”“I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives and they’re going to be lying,” he said.TopicsCoronavirusAnthony FauciBiden administrationUS politicsInfectious diseasesVaccines and immunisationUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More

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      Trump stoked Covid in red states – but there are blue anti-vaxxers too | Robert Reich

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      Trump stoked Covid in red states – but there are blue anti-vaxxers tooRobert ReichAmong my neighbors in the bluest region of the bluest county of the bluest state in America, many don’t trust big pharma or the government – or simply choose to put themselves first Is there a relationship between Covid and politics? Sure seems so.Michigan leads US in Covid case count, accounting for one in 10 new casesRead moreBy the end of October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of counties Donald Trump won by wide margins had died from Covid. That was more than three times higher than the Covid death rate in heavily Biden counties, of 7.8 per 100,000.Counties where Trump received at least 70% of the vote had an even higher average Covid death toll than counties where Trump won at least 60%.Presumably, this is because Trump counties also have the highest unvaccinated rates in the US. Almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state.There are some obvious reasons why Trump voters have been hesitant to get vaccinated. Trump politicized the issue – making the jab a hallmark of his peculiar form of rightwing populism. He and Fox News spread false rumors and conspiracy theories about the vaccine. By the time Trump finally called on people to get vaccinated, the damage was already done.In other words, it’s the same trifecta of rightwing media, inadequate education and rejection of science that gave us Trump in the first place.But this isn’t the whole story, because the US as a whole trails every other advanced country in the rate of vaccinations. Why?In recent weeks I’ve discovered that several anti-vaxxers live around me – in the bluest region of the bluest county of the bluest state in America. I’ve known several for years. They are well-informed and well-educated. But they’re as opposed to getting a shot as any Trump anti-vaxxer.Some are ex-hippies, now in their late 60s and early 70s, who regard their bodies as “sacred” and don’t want anything or anyone to “invade” it.One, who grows her own food and lives by herself in a cabin not far from here, told me she didn’t want anything going into her body that she didn’t control. When I asked whether she had been vaccinated against smallpox, measles, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, she told me she assumed so but had been too small to have had knowledge or control.Others – also in their late 60s and early 70s – don’t trust big pharma. They see Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson as greedy global corporations in search of people to exploit and tax havens to park their exorbitant profits.“Why in hell would I trust a fucking thing Pfizer says or does?” one of them asked me.None of these people trusts the government. Their generation (which is also mine) came to political consciousness during the Vietnam war – a time when the American flag became an emblem of fascism, particularly in lefty coastal enclaves. They now believe the government has been so corrupted by big money that they don’t trust agencies charged with protecting the public.I’m sympathetic to their distrust of both big pharma and big government. But this doesn’t mean the science is wrong.One of them referred me to a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that about a third of the drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration between 2001 and 2010 had safety problems after reaching the market.I checked and he’s correct. But he left out a critical fact: as soon as the FDA discovered the problems it forced manufacturers to pull the drugs or issue warnings.Deep down, I think these blue anti-vaxxers are motivated by something different from mere distrust. When I pointed out that they could well be endangering others (including me), they remained unmoved.When I suggested that their concerns, however valid, had to be weighed against the public’s overall interest in conquering this epidemic, they said they didn’t care.My conclusion: They’re infected not by Covid but by a narcissism that refuses even to consider the risks and costs they’re imposing on others.Has living through Covid made me a hypochondriac? I asked some experts | Maeve HigginsRead moreI can’t say for sure that Trump anti-vaxxers share this narcissism, although the leader of their cult surely does. And, of course, my sample size was so small I can’t even generalize to all blue anti-vaxxers.If we blame Trump and the culture that produced him for the relatively low rate of vaccinations in the US, we’re missing a character trait that may offer a fuller explanation.This trait is found among Democrats and independents in blue America as well as Republicans in Trumpland. In fact, I think it’s been near the core of the American personality since before the founding of the nation – a stubborn, selfish, me-first individualism.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      TopicsCoronavirusOpinionUS politicsUS domestic policyDemocratsRepublicansUS healthcareInfectious diseasescommentReuse this content More