© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque 18
Asked by CNBC whether coronavirus vaccine mandates are "counterproductive," and might make Americans more hesitant to take future vaccines, Fauci said on Friday that dropping the word "mandate" seems to make people more willing to get jabbed.
"Mandates - that's a radioactive word," he said. "'Requirements,' people seem to respond better to that. They work."
Comment: The vast majority of people are not going to respond well to being forced to inject an experimental substance into their bodies, regardless of how many focus groups say that "requirement" has less of a negative connotation as "mandate."
Fauci then praised companies like United Airlines for requiring or mandating employees to get vaccinated, and boasted that the federal government's vaccine mandate has led to a 97% vaccination rate among employees.
In addition to rebranding mandates as the friendlier-sounding "requirements," Fauci also suggested that the definition of "vaccinated" could be changed from meaning anyone who's received two doses of Pfizer's or Moderna's vaccine, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson's shot, to someone who has received this initial dose plus a booster shot.
"There's no doubt if you want to be optimally protected, you should get your booster," Fauci stated.
Fauci's shifting positions on vaccines and masking throughout the pandemic have angered conservatives. After initially advising people not to wear masks, Fauci then became a proponent of mask mandates. Likewise Fauci promised Americans last year that 'herd immunity' to the coronavirus could be reached if 70% of them got vaccinated, before admitting that this was a lie to boost uptake of the vaccine.
With the new Omicron variant of the virus spreading in the US, Fauci has stuck by vaccination and booster shots as the most effective way of stopping the spread of Covid-19, as President Joe Biden predicts a "winter of death" for the unvaccinated. However, preliminary studies, including one from South Africa where the variant originated and another by Columbia University, show that the current crop of vaccines are markedly less effective against Omicron.
Despite being highly transmissible, data suggests that the Omicron variant causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, and is less likely to hospitalize those it infects.
Reader Comments
BK et al. infra: I'll treat it as someone coming to shoot me and will react the same.
RC
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Well I reckon as we approach the darkest day of the year ( Northern Hemisphere only ) in the year of 2021, the year of reckoning in my book, that there will be some dead bodies only found in the light of day after the deed(s) is (are) done. Hard work is the mettle of peasants who love their neighbors.
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Don't complain to me if you cheat in the game because if you do, then you get what is deserved and we all know this.
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I hope in Europe being my ancestors came from there, that they return to their senses, but I think the chances of this are slim. Get ready - it is blowing in the wind and it is fearsome.
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?
Simple as that.
A dog wanting to survive should know there comes a time to beg for mercy.
But fauci ain't even as smart as a dog.
Consider what those beagles were thinking as the flies ate their brains.
Over my dead body your mother effers....and guess what - we is coming to get U.
Don’t worry, little rodent. You’ll get your booster in the form of a ‘control shot’