Port: Trump knows that the fight against vaccination is slicing his political base – InForum

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MINOT, ND – Believe it or not, I think the disgraced former President Donald Trump really knows how to do basic arithmetic.

I think that’s why COVID-19 has centered most of its fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis raised his national profile during the pandemic, in part, by pandering to most anti-vaccines. DeSantis declined to disclose details about the status of his booster vaccination, prompting Trump to take a thin veil shot at him, suggesting that political leaders who keep information private are “reluctant . ”

Trump, in all his mistakes, has been clear about his own vaccination status. He encouraged his followers to get vaccinated. And, let’s be fair to the man, his administration is deeply indebted to helping speed up COVID-19 vaccines on sale.

That’s a weird thing, where his political base is in vaccines. There is a heavy overlap between Trump World and the anti-vaccination crowd. Normally, Trump is willing to appease even the ugliest and most intense element of his base, but with vaccines he has stood his ground.

That may be because dead voters are not good to him.

A study in September from the Centers for Disease Control found that 91% of deaths from COVID-19 were not vaccinated. A November study from the Texas Department of Health put that number in the same ballpark, at 95%.

Vaccination rates have fallen sharply across political and cultural lines. Surveys show us that Americans who are unlikely to be vaccinated are religious and Republicans.

That’s Trump’s base. And, in fact, other metrics show that resistance to vaccination has resulted in a cruel disregard for that base. In September, columnist David Leonhardt wrote in The New York Times that death rates on COVID-19 were nearly three times higher than counties that voted for Trump in 2020.

Donald McNeil, a former science and health reporter for the Times, extrapolated: “This week, approximately 1,800 Americans a day die of COVID; the CDC expects that number to rise to 2,600 , “he wrote. “Almost everyone is an adult. If 95% aren’t vaccinated and we assume 75% of those are Trump supporters, that’s 1,300 to 1,900 of his voters being deducted from the lists every day.”

“Right now, approximately 60 Arizonans, 36 Georgians, 34 Wisconsinites and 14 Nevadans die from COVID each day,” McNeil continued.

If 95% were not vaccinated, and 75% were Trump supporters, that would be a loss of about 100 voters per day in the swing states that Trump would need to reclaim another victory at the Electoral College.

Now do you understand why Trump is willing to stir up boos from his audience by promoting vaccines?

The anti-vaccine movement is literally killing his people.

Rob Port, founder of SayAnythingBlog.com, is a commentator at Forum Communications. Listen to his Plain Talk Podcast and follow him on Twitter at @RobPort. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

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