Unvaxxedd Americans blame foreigners, Biden and media for COVID surge

Unvaccinated Americans blame foreigners, Biden and the ‘mainstream media’ for the recent surge of COVID-19 cases linked to the Indian ‘Delta’ variant, poll finds

• Unvaccinated Americans blame foreigners (36.9%), Joe Biden (21.4) and the mainstream media (27.1%) for recent COVID surges
• Vaccinated Americans largely blame the unvaccinated (78.6%), while Donald Trump (35.7%) also gets pointed at by some
• President Biden has largely focused his COVID-19 response on getting more Americans vaccinated
• Average daily infections have risen 283% in the last three weeks – from 23,613 to 90,576 – and are currently at their highest levels since February 2021

Unvaccinated Americans largely blame foreign travelers, the mainstream media and President Joe Biden for the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., a new poll finds.

Average daily infections have risen 283 percent in the last three weeks – from 23,613 to 90,576 – and are currently at their highest levels since February 2021. 

The survey conducted by Axios-Ipsos showed that that vaccinated Americans overwhelmingly blame the unvaccinated, with 78 percent saying people who haven’t gotten their shots are responsible for the summer surge. 

But those who haven’t received vaccines believe the spike is mainly caused by visitors from other countries.

A vast majority of vaccinated Americans blame the unvaccinated for the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. The unvaccinated blame foreigners, Joe Biden and some public health officials

Biden’s COVID response plan so far has focused on getting more Americans vaccinated to protect them from the virus. Pictured: President Biden delivers remarks on the efforts to get more Americans vaccinated, July 2021

It seems unvaccinated Americans aren’t sure which people or groups are to blame and their views are more split than their vaccinated peers.

More than a third of the unvaccinated, 36.7 percent, blame foreign travelers while 27.1 percent blame mainstream media.

They also blame public figures such as President Joe Biden and national health experts like Dr Anthony Fauci at 21.4 percent and 17.6 percent respectively.

Some unvaccinated Americans also say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is at vault with 18.6 percent assigning blame to the agency.

Vaccinated Americans largely let them skate by, with only 11.5 percent pointing the finger at Biden, 9.8 percent at the CDC and 6.8 percent at national public health officials.

Biden has largely focused his pandemic response on getting more Americans vaccinated, investing more into acquiring the vaccine and delivering funds to struggling areas to boost their vaccine rollouts. 

The President set a goal of getting 70 percent of American adults partially vaccinated by July 4, though the nation did not reach that mark until 29 days later on August 2.

He also ordered that all federal workers either get vaccinated, or agree to abide by masking and distancing guidelines in the workplace. 

While vaccinated Americans largely blame the unvaccinated at 78.6 percent – who make up a majority of COVID-19 cases and deaths – some conservative figures are getting blamed as well.

Former President Donald Trump is blamed by 35.7 percent of the vaccinated, the poll found.

Trump was heavily criticized last year for his mishandling of the pandemic.

In the time since he has left office, though, he has gotten vaccinated and even pushed his conservative base – who are less likely to have received the shots so far – to get vaccinated as well.

President Donald Trump is blamed by many vaccinated people for the current surge in COVID cases. Trump is vaccinated, and encouraged his supporters to get jabbed. Pictured: Former President Trump makes an entrance at the Rally To Protect Our Elections conference in Phoenix, Arizona, July 2021

Trump dodges criticism from the unvaccinated, with only 11.2 percent blaming him. 

Many unvaccinated Americans – 27.1 percent – blame the mainstream media, though conservative media eats little of the blame at only 7.5 percent. 

Vaccinated Americans point more at conservative media, with 33.4 percent blaming the right-wing media sphere.

Some popular figures in right wing media – most notably Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, one of the most popular hosts on television – have spread skepticism and misinformation about the vaccines. 

Meanwhile, conservative politicians have tended to blame of the surge on foreign travelers.

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, blamed migrants coming over the border for surges of cases in South Texas last month.

‘We’re seeing COVID positivity rates rising in South Texas. We’re seeing COVID positivity rising in Laredo. We’re seeing COVID positivity rising in San Antonio,’ Cruz said at a news conference last month.

‘Just yesterday, I spoke with the mayor of Uvalde, Texas, who said as a result of the illegal immigrants being released – in Uvalde they’re seeing COVID positivity spiking up. And Biden wants to release even more COVID positive illegal immigrants. This is lunacy.’

In Texas, cases have grown by 211 percent over the past two weeks, from 3,469 on July 20 to 10,821 on August 3. 

Gov Greg Abbot has blamed immigrants for his state’s recent COVID surge. An executive order telling state troopers to pull over trucks carrying migrants was struck down by a federal court

Texas Gov Greg Abbott, also a Republican, also pointed the finger at foreigners.  

At the end of July, he signed an executive order to instruct state troopers to pull over vehicles carrying migrants, and either reroute them or seize the, in an effort to curb COVID-19.

The move received swift condemnation, including from the American Immigrant Council (AIC).

‘It is mind-blowingly fascistic that Abbott is literally citing COVID while ordering police to forcibly seize the vehicles of big-hearted Texans who are helping migrants while simultaneously screaming about the need to protect Texans’ freedom from mask mandates,’ wrote Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at AIC, wrote on Twitter.  

A federal judge blocked the order from Abbott on Tuesday, saying it could lead to racial profiling. 

Senator Jon Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, also blamed case surges on immigrants coming over the border last month.

There has been no demonstrated link between large case surges around the country and immigrants coming over the southern border, especially in states like Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and South Carolina, which do not share a border with Mexico yet still have the country’s largest COVID-19 surges.   

Around 25 percent of vaccinated people and 22.7 percent of unvaccinated people also blame Americans who are travelling internationally for a recent uptick in cases.

The United States is averaging 92,000 new cases every day as a Indian ‘Delta’ variant caused fourth wave of the pandemic is underway.

Cases have grown by 139 percent – from 38,453 on July 20 – in the past two weeks.

Over the last month, cases have grown by 357 percent, up from 20,104 new cases a day on July 3. 

The U.S. south – where vaccination rates are the lowest – is being hit the hardest.

All 50 states are now seeing an increased demand for the vaccines in the wake of recent surges. 

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