While COVID-19 cases are on the rise once more, almost half of House Republicans remain reluctant to publicly say if they are vaccinated.
KCBS Radio’s Political Analyst Marc Sandalow weighed in with Dan Mitchinson and Holly Quan Friday morning.
"This is not the case like trying to get somebody in politics to reveal their taxes," said Sandalow. Taxes need to be closely scrutinized and disseminated to help voters decide who to support, he said. "This is simply a matter of whether or not people are going to encourage others to get vaccines."
According to Sandalow, CNN has been asking every member of Congress if they have been vaccinated. In almost all cases, Democrats have responded yes, and in the Senate, the majority of Republicans have also responded yes.
But in the House, it’s a different story. Out of the 211 House Republicans, 97 have flatly refused to answer the question.
A couple have stated they will not get vaccinated. "The rest of them appear to be playing a deadly political game," said Sandalow. "The presumption is they have gotten vaccinated, like Donald Trump, Melania Trump and others who have not been outspoken about it, they’ve likely taken the steps to protect their own lives."
But they know that their voters are skeptical of the vaccine, he said. So they refuse to say if they’ve gotten vaccinated or not.
It’s a perversion of politics, said Sandalow. "This is a case where people are doing one thing for their own personal health but on the other hand they refuse to discuss it publicly out of concern that the anti-vaxxers won’t vote for them."
The consequences have dire effects. Those who are unvaccinated are contributing to the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.
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