Analysis | The Republican race in the White House will put anti-vaccination policies to the test (2023)

The number of Americans saying healthy children need to be vaccinated has gone down quite a bitagainst diseases such as measles, mumps or tetanus before they can attend public school. Pew found that about 70 percent of Americans agree with this principle, compared to 82 percent in 2019 and 2016.

And the proportion of Americans who say it's up to the parents to decide --“Even if this can result in health risks for others”– has increased by 12 percent to 28 percent since the end of 2019 (the eve of the pandemic).

That might not sound like much. It might sound like there's pretty strong support in the US for children having to be vaccinated when they go to school - 70-28 is nowhere near that.

Fair enough.

Support for this specific vaccination requirement has not really changed among Democrat or pro-democracy respondents. It was 86 percent in October 2019 and is currently 85 percent.

ButAmong Republicans, or Republican-leaning Americans, support for this mandate has fallen from 79 percent in 2019 to 57 percent now — a 22 percentage point drop.42 percent say parents can choose not to have their children vaccinated, “even if it could pose health risks to others.”

Pew has released numbers for white evangelical Protestants, a key GOP constituency.

Not surprisingly, Pew found a deeper skepticism about traditional vaccines among Americans who have not been vaccinated against Covid, a population about 70 percent Republican or Republican-leaning.

The Pew poll suggests the political power of the issue, at least among GOP voters. Traditional compulsory vaccination of children in public schools has to be one of the least controversial public health measures (estimated by The Daily 202).

It hasn't been lost on some GOP fields.

Speaking before the Florida Family Policy Council gala on Saturday night, the Florida governor said:Ron DeSantis(R), who is expected to join the 2024 fight any day, made the most of his anti-mandate credentials — but went a little further.

"The way they weaponized these Covid vaccines was a massive invasion of our liberties," DeSantis accused, before declaring:"We can't ever allow warp speed to trump informed consent in this country again." Trump, got it?

DeSantis wasn't inclined to name the GOP frontrunner —even when he's throwing obvious digs at him. Perhaps not remarkable, but noteworthy nonetheless: he attacks Trump's outstanding performance in the pandemic, despite the fact that it was about developing and distributing the vaccine, not calling for gunfire. So this is a calculated criticism of the former President.

Trump, who has a double-digit lead over DeSantis, has been bickering with the governor over vaccines this year since it was clear the Florida politician would be a rival for the GOP nomination.

Back in February, Trump vented on his Truth Social platform that DeSantis "loved the vaccines."

Still, no one knows better than Trump just how profoundly the Republican base -- even his staunch rally attendees -- are reacting to the vaccine.Finally,he was booedwhen he revealed that he had received a booster shot.

Back then, however, the former president was still prone to defending "warp speed," telling the crowd, "Look, we did something historic, we saved tens of millions of lives around the world." All of us, all of us, not me .”

„A 19-year-old Missouri man was arrested after police said he intentionally drove a rented U-Haul truck near the White House to the crash, and investigators recovered a Nazi flag from the vehicle,”Leo Sands, Martin Weil and Peter Hermann report.

„The Treasury Department has asked federal agencies if they can make upcoming payments at a later date, said two people familiar with the matter, as senior Biden officials seek new ways to conserve cash and prevent the U.S. government from facing an unprecedented default."Jeff Stein reports.

„A bipartisan duo of Hispanic women present the most sweeping immigration proposal yet at this convention, a significant collaboration as a new generation of lawmakers push for meaningful reform of the country's immigration system after decades of failed attempts",Marianna Sotomayor und Theodoric Meyer berichten.

"Texas lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom in the state as part of a new national effort to integrate religion into public life.Proponents believe last summer's Supreme Court ruling in favor of a high school football coach who prayed with players essentially eliminated all barriers between religion and government.”Michelle Boorstein reports.

„Books about LGBTQ people are quickly becoming the main target in an historic wave of textbook challenges— and a large percentage of the complaints come from a tiny number of hyperactive adults, a unique Washington Post analysis found.”Hannah Natanson reports.

“Each mass shooting leaves more families whose worst nightmare turns them into sudden, reluctant figures in a national tragedy. Overnight, [Kimberly Garcia] And [Engel Garza"s] family became one of them",DieNew York TimesJaeah Lee reports.

"Federal prosecutors overseeing investigations into former President Donald J. Trump's handling of classified documents have..."issued a subpoena seeking information about Mr. Trump's overseas business dealings since taking office, according to two people familiar with the matter,DieNOWAlan Feuer, Maggie Haberman and Ben Protess report.

"The President opened a discussion of about an hour and acknowledged that Democrats and Republicans 'need to get something to sell both sides and we need to cut spending.'"McCarthy later described the talks as "productive," though leaders failed to resolve the debt-ceiling row, and promised their top emissaries would "work through the night."”Tony Romm, Rachel Siegel and Leigh Ann Caldwell report.

„It was easy to overlook Mr Biden's Sunday prediction of an impending "thaw" in relations with Beijing, while both sides are moving beyond what he called a "silly" Chinese act of sending a giant surveillance balloon over the United States, just the latest in a series of incidents that appear to have fueled a descent toward confrontation."Write to Peter Baker and David E. Sanger of the NYT.

„The desire to work away from the office is high among remote workers: around 7 in 10 say they would work from home “all the time” (37 percent).or “most of the time” (35 percent). About a quarter of these workers would elect to work from home “sometimes” (23 percent), while just 6 percent would elect to work remotely “rarely or never.”Taylor Telford, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin report.

"Unless Congress exercises its power to award contracts and limit borrowing at the same time, the debt limit amounts to giving a house of Congress something."ex postVeto power over federal spending already approved by law.This is in complete contradiction to the basic idea of ​​the constitution and guarantees a legislative dysfunction„,“Anna Gelpern, Adam J. Levitin and Stephen Lubben write forAmerican view.

“At a Christian media conference in Orlando, the future GOP spokepresidential candidateHe also floated the idea that if elected, he could serve eight years -- an implicit contrast to former President Donald Trump, the Republican opinion leader, who could only serve four more years.DeSantis recounted how, as governor, he placed the Florida Supreme Court under conservative control and speculated before an excited crowd that several US Supreme Court justices might need replacements in the president's next two terms„,“Hannah Knowles reports.

12:15 p.m.: Biden and Vice PresidentHarriswill have lunch.

Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing at 1 p.m.

„On Monday morning, a verified Twitter account called Bloomberg Feed shared a menacing tweet.Under the words “Large explosion near Pentagon complex in Washington, D.C. - Initial Report" featured an image of a huge plume of black smoke next to a vaguely Pentagon-like building."Will Oremus, Drew Harwell and Teo Armus report.

Thank you for reading. See you in the morning.