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- Former Vice President Mike Pence is urging young conservatives to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
- “I got the shot, my family got the shot,” Pence told a Republican audience in Texas.
- He joins the ranks of GOP lawmakers who are voicing their support for the COVID-19 vaccine.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is urging young conservatives to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Speaking to an audience at Young America’s Foundation in Houston on August 4, Pence told the audience that he got the vaccine and referred to vaccine-development program Operation Warp Speed as an “American medical miracle.”
“I got the shot, my family got the shot,” Pence told his Republican audience in Texas. “I want to encourage anyone here who hasn’t gotten the shot, who is eligible, to go get it. And if you’re not sure about it, go ask your doctor and get the very best advice that you can.”
Pence joins the ranks of GOP officials who have come out in recent weeks in support of the vaccine. He was one of the first public officials to get the vaccine, and declared when he received it that he “didn’t feel a thing.”
Pence is not the only GOP lawmaker voicing support for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is using his campaign funds to run ads in Kentucky to encourage more people to get the COVID-19 jab.
Tennessee state GOP Rep. David Byrd, who last June voted for a resolution that accused the media of sensationalizing COVID-19, is also now encouraging people to get the vaccine. Byrd experienced organ failure and spent 55 days on a ventilator after catching the virus around Thanksgiving last year.
“I have never been against taking the Covid-19 vaccine, but I understand the concerns of those who are hesitant. To them, I would say Covid is real and it is very dangerous,” he said in a statement on July 30. “It is a disease that wants to kill us. Please take it seriously. Please consider getting vaccinated. This is an issue that should not divide us.”
Meanwhile, other GOP lawmakers – including Sen. Ron Johnson and Rep. Matt Gaetz – remain publicly opposed to the vaccine.
Johnson has said he will not get vaccinated. On a conservative podcast on July 21, he told host Lisa Boothe that he thought the vaccine program was “not rational.”
“It creeps me out that the government is wanting to push a vaccine in everybody’s arm, even those people that don’t need it,” Johnson said on the podcast. “Sorry Uncle Joe, I’m not signing up for that program.”
Insider also reported that Gaetz was heard mocking COVID-19 experts, claiming that he has the “Florida variant” and the “freedom variant.”
“You’ve had all the experts say, look out for the Delta variant or the Lambda variant,” he said to a crowd at an event in Largo, Florida. “Well, next it’ll be the Chi Omega variant or the Pi Kappa Psi variant.”
“I got the Florida variant. I got the freedom variant,” Gaetz said. “It affects the brain. It gets you to think for yourself where you don’t just surrender to the truth that they’re trying to create in corrupt big media.”
The US is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the contagious Delta variant. This has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ask even the fully vaccinated to wear masks indoors to curb the spread.
According to the New York Times vaccine tracker, 49.9% of the US is fully vaccinated. The pace of vaccinations has dipped and now stands at an average of 699,000 doses administered per day. This is a 79% drop from the peak of 3.38 million doses per day that was recorded on April 13.
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