Ron DeSantis’s controversial surgeon general questions safety of vaccines
The GOP’s ability to do more about such things is indisputable. Its political will is clearly another matter entirely.
And it’s not just turning a blind eye to what [Sen. Ron] Johnson is up to. It’s ignoring the rampant and consistent vaccine misinformation on prime-time Fox News shows, including Tucker Carlson’s. Republican state legislators have repeatedly provided forums to fringe figures who promote not just criticism of vaccine mandates, but full-fledged anti-vaccine conspiracy theories — with no evident pushback from the broader party. Even medical doctors in the GOP caucus have declined to repudiate vaccine misinformation from the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), while expressing much-stronger views on her suspension from Twitter over it. Claims that the vaccination effort is akin to Nazi-era policies also have been deemed unworthy of repudiation.
