There are several factors driving the spread of the highly infectious virus, experts said.

Many cases reported in the United States this year were linked to international travel, according to the C.D.C., as travel destinations such as Britain, Austria and the Philippines have had outbreaks. Many of the people in the United States who have been infected have been unvaccinated children age 12 months and older.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        9 months ago

        This seems like a non-partisan thing that only became partisan recently. Look at RFK Jr, a lifelong Democrat who pushes anti-vaccine misinformation.

        Here’s how I see events:

        1. GOP has White House when COVID happens and they push for vaccine availability
        2. Democrats criticize GOP response saying vaccines should be mandatory
        3. GOP pushes back saying it should be optional
        4. Anti-vaccine groups latch on to the GOP since they both oppose mandatory vaccination

        If Democrats were in power, they likely wouldn’t have pushed for mandatory vaccination, so the anti-vaccine crowd probably wouldn’t have allied with the GOP (I’m guessing the GOP wouldn’t criticized slow development of the vaccine or something).

        Most people are vaccinated, so vaccination is absolutely the majority in both parties. Anti-vaccine groups are like any other conspiracy group, they’ll join with whichever larger group seems to be more sympathetic at the time.