Oh how the needles have turned.
MAGA’s reputation for vaccine skepticism precedes it. Since the days of the Covid-19 vaccine (the same one distributed by their candidate of choice) far-right political pundits made vaccine skepticism part of their political platform. GOP Representative just recently claimed that the Covid-19 vaccine is responsible for “all time high” cancer rates.
But on the heels of Russia’s cancer vaccine announcement, MAGA supporters have changed their tune.
Software engineer Alex Cole pointed out the irony of the sudden embrace of vaccines, reposting a statement made by Douglas Macgregor – once a Secretary of Defense Advisor in Trump administration – questioning why the media is ignoring a supposedly free cancer vaccine developed by Russia.
On Macgregor’s post itself, X shared reader added context the states the media hasn’t reported on the vaccine because there are many like it already in development, and Russia has provided “no data” to support their vaccine claim. However, the Economic Times and Newsweek have covered the story.
This isn’t the first time Douglas Macgregor has repeated a dubious claim. He once lent credence to the white supremacist “great replacement” theory popularized by Tucker Carlson, that posits that left-leaning politicians are conspiring to, in Macgregor’s own words, “bring in as many non-Europeans as possible in order to outnumber the numbers of Americans of European ancestry who live in the United States.”
Users on X were quick to lampoon Macgregor’s apparent endorsement of Russia’s contested vaccine, calling it a total 180 from past MAGA views surrounding inoculation.
The irony is palpable.
Considering Trump’s choice for head of the Health and Human Services Department, the hypocrisy is indeed out of this world and halfway across the Solar System. Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the organization, the same man who recently claimed that the polio vaccine was responsible for killing more people than polio itself. Kennedy has also spread doubt about the HPV vaccine, saying that it “appears to be increasing the risk of cervical cancer” despite accredited medical organizations saying otherwise. He has even repeated the universally debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, and believes that tap water is turning kids gay and the bacterial hotbed that is raw milk is healthier than pasteurized. Whether RFK Jr. will change his tune on vaccination now that Russia apparently has one remains to be seen.
If it appears that Douglas Macgregor is warming up to Russia, he’s only taking after his candidate of choice. Donald Trump has broken with political precedent to frequently praise Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump has said once called him a “genius.” Trump has since called Putin a “strong leader” and recently called the Russian President in order to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.
If Macgregor and his party are indeed content to flip flop on vaccines, the decision comes to little too late. According to a report by the National Library of Public Medicine “at least 232,000 deaths could have been prevented among unvaccinated adults” had they been inoculated. If Russia had distributed a Covid-19 vaccine, would MAGA have backed it then? No one can truly say.
Published: Dec 19, 2024 05:57 am