S1E73 / Getting on the Right Side of Conservatives and Vaccines / Former Governor Chris Christie & Brian Castrucci

EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

KFF Health News and Just Human Productions

Society & Culture, #Eradication, Medicine, #Covid, Science, Life Sciences, #Sarscov2, Documentary, #Coronavirus, #Covid19, Health & Fitness, #Smallpox

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2021

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"What we really need to be doing is not belittle people. Don't wag your finger at them. Don't make them feel stupid or small for not having gotten the vaccine yet. Talk to them about why it's safe." - Gov. Chris Christie Conservatives have emerged as the group least likely to say they’ll get vaccinated. Getting more conservative Americans comfortable with the vaccines will be needed to control the pandemic as national vaccination rates have started to slow and new variants spread across the United States. In this episode we’ll look at the results of a focus group attended by Governor Christie and other GOP leaders to listen to these voters’ concerns and see if they could be convinced to get vaccinated. This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you. #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Transcript

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0:00.0	If we debate the vaccines and we don't have the uptake that we need, then we're all going to lose.
0:21.0	In the end, what people want is to be educated by people who really understand what's going on here
0:26.0	and to be able to make their own decisions.
0:30.0	You're listening to Epidemic, the podcast about the science, public health, and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
0:45.0	I'm your host, Dr. Celine Gounder.
1:01.0	When the pandemic started, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie says he took COVID seriously.
1:09.0	I was personally very careful because I'm an asthmatic.
1:12.0	And so I was always concerned about getting COVID and how it might affect me personally.
1:17.0	So he followed all the CDC's recommendations, social distancing, hand washing, and wearing a mask when he left the home.
1:25.0	So he was doing all the things for seven months just about.
1:29.0	I stayed away from COVID and COVID stayed away from me.
1:33.0	I then went at the very end of September to the White House to prepare President Trump for the presidential debate.
1:42.0	He was at the White House for four days.
1:44.0	I was given a rapid test to see the President and I tested negative every time all the people coming to visit the President have been tested and tested negative.
1:53.0	And so I felt like we were safe. We were in the safest place in the world, in fact, in the White House.
1:58.0	And so I did not wear a mask.
2:00.0	During that week, Governor Christie also attended a reception at the White House for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett,
2:07.0	an event that was later identified as a COVID super spreader event.
2:11.0	I left the White House that Tuesday, the day of the debate, and by Friday, I was symptomatic and tested positive for COVID.
2:21.0	And wound up being admitted to the hospital.
2:27.0	What was your experience in the hospital like?
2:31.0	Frightening and isolating. You know, you're physically isolated from others because you're contagious. You're a COVID patient.
	...

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