Over the weekend, the @deBeaumontFndtn and I hosted a focus group with 20 vaccine-hesitant Trump voters.

Nearly all said they had more fears about the COVID vaccine than they did about COVID.

https://wapo.st/38IslFk 

Much of the group’s doubt toward the COVID vaccine comes from the overall politicization of the pandemic.

“If you want us to ‘trust the science,’ then politics have to be taken out of it.”

Travel requirements were something that many vaccine-hesitant group members said would successfully push them to get the COVID vaccine.

I called in @DrTomFrieden to drop 5 facts on the group, then asked if he made any difference in their stance on the COVID vaccine.

A majority said he did.

I also asked @GovChristie to recount his own experiences with COVID, which highlighted how random the disease’s severity can be.

“I got the sickest, then President Trump… But the next sickest was Hope Hicks, who was the youngest and most fit person in that room.”

Finally, I asked participants if their minds had been changed at all by what they’d just heard – and all of them said they were now more likely to get the COVID vaccine.

“I liked the doctors and when they talked to us without any politics involved.”

http://wapo.st/3voVIWS 

Big thanks to Dr. @BrianCCastrucci at the @deBeaumontFndtn for getting in touch and organizing this.

This isn’t about politics – it’s about public health. Let’s use what we learned to get all Americans vaccinated against COVID. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/03/15/vaccine-hesitant-republicans-focus-group/