A failed attempt to defend Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris absolutely did undermine public trust in public health officials. She claimed they would be muzzled, suppressed and sidelined.
The letter to the editor defending Kamala Harris misses the mark by a lot. First of all, it makes no logical sense to discount the Washington Post as a source because you do not like a particular writer's opinions. There is not one thing he reported about what Kamala Harris said that is not true, so dismissing him reeks of desperation. Here is a direct link to the CNN report he referenced.
Yes, Kamala Harris absolutely did undermine public trust in public health officials. She claimed they would be muzzled, suppressed and sidelined. So to claim that Harris "uttered not one sentence" questioning anyone other than Trump is simply not true.
The author says that despite Trump's promises of a vaccine before the election, "Public health experts were cautioning (correctly, of course) that the process would take longer." It did, but only just barely. The vaccines were announced almost immediately after the election was over, a tiny difference in the timeline. Then Kamala Harris took the vaccine she said she would not trust. What obscene hypocrisy.
The Pew Research poll I cited in my LTTE is real. The author of this letter cherry-picks data from a different poll about who said they would "never" get the vaccine, but that doesn't change the Pew data about the percentages of blacks, whites and Hispanics who said they would definitely or probably get a COVID-19 vaccine. Those numbers are 61%, 69% and 70% respectively. Vaccine hesitancy among blacks is a real thing. Charles Blow reported on it in the New York Times a while back:
It is now a well-established fact that Black people are getting the vaccine less than their white counterparts and also express more doubt about it.
I did not blame Harris for vaccine hesitancy among blacks. I did say that as the first woman of color to be on a national ticket, she could have used her bully pulpit to calm fears and encourage vaccinations among a community very hard-hit by the pandemic. She chose not to do so, for short-term political gain. That is shameful. If Harris had any integrity at all, she would apologize for her irresponsible words.
Previously:
♣ - Kamala Harris promotes the vaccines she once derided.
♣ - Fact: Kamala Harris undermined public trust in vaccines.