Abby Teitsch 

Professor Sophie Field 

ENG 170-14 

13 Oct 2022 

Donald Trump and Vaccine Rhetoric 

Misinformation runs rampant with the use of modern media. One’s sense of truth may be contorted because of this; today, one cannot know the difference between fact and fiction without doing their own research. The case of the COVID-19 pandemic showed the effect of widespread propaganda over mass groups of people. Donald Trump promoted anti-vaccine rhetoric throughout his presidency and the recent pandemic via social networks. Conservatives are more likely to accept and reiterate vaccine skepticism, and recent studies have shown the link between the two to continually grow stronger.  

The COVID-19 vaccine has been a controversial, hot topic of debate over the past two years. It was created fairly fast, which led some people to think it was less reliable or safe than any other shot. Former president Donald Trump, who was in power at the start of the pandemic, has always had a large base of supporters who seem to repeat many of the things he says and does. One concept that Trump has been very verbal about in the past is vaccinations, particularly childhood vaccines causing autism. This animosity led to an immediate distaste and skepticism of the coronavirus vaccine among many Republicans and right-leaning people. 

                           

There is more to the image than what the eye initially sees when looking at the political cartoon at hand. At first glance, we see an angry elephant and two medical professionals. A plump caricature of Trump is hiding away inside the animal’s mouth, seemingly a parasite in its host’s body. The elephant blatantly represents the Republican party, but more specifically anti-vaccine conservatives, while the two on the right represent pro-science views, waning more to left of the political spectrum. The doctor’s words are interesting, talking about ‘livestock anti-parasite drug’ and feeding it to the animal. A 5-minute Google search will reveal the fact that vaccine skeptics and conspiracy theorists were encouraging the use of ivermectin, a horse de-wormer, to treat COVID (Blake). Majority of the time, these same people were also Trump supporters who endorsed his use of hydroxychloroquine. The author of this political cartoon, Rick McKee, is an illustrator and cartoonist for the August Chronicles (“Rick McKee”). When looking at his other cartoons, he stays relatively central, poking fun at both sides of the political divide. He creates many cartoons about Trump, Biden, Fauci, new bills passed, etc. The political cartoon itself has many layers that can be unraveled if one takes enough time to peel them back. 

Donald Trump successfully persuaded millions in believing the COVID vaccine was unsafe and ineffective. The effect of misinformation by the right being taken as fact is evident with the numbers provided – counties with a higher percentage of Trump supporters tended to have a higher percentage of unvaccinated residents (Brumfiel). Brumfiel’s article also suggests there is a connection between right-wing conspiracy theorists and the anti-vaxxers. Twelve considerable influencers and celebrities were found to be a part of most anti-vaccine propaganda on social media. The author proposes this has happened because of the concern of the overlap between government regulation and individual freedom, generally worried about by Conservatives. Donald Trump was the most considerable contender in the 2020 election for Republicans, and for the years before that of being a Republican president. Dolan’s article, an analysis of a 2021 study, finds numerous critical links between conservatism and anti-vaccination discourse on Twitter. The study consists of a pro-vaccination group, control group, and anti-vaccination group. The findings include that the anti-vax group were most active, most likely to reply and retweet, and share “emotional content and conspiracy theories” (Dolan). Additionally, they generally followed more large influencers and celebrities, the most popular among the group being former president, Donald Trump. On the other hand, the pro-vax group were least active on Twitter, and more likely to conjure up fresh content. This study is an incredible, unbiased depiction of just how much anti-vaccine propaganda spreads among the political right via social media. Both articles from popular sources lead nonpartisan, credible analyses and support the claim that Trump promoted anti-vaccine rhetoric. 

The scholarly article, Republicans, Not Democrats, Are More Likely to Endorse Anti-Vaccine Misinformation, by Matthew Motta, states that recently, the switch was made from people who are anti-vaccination being more likely to self-identify as Democrat, to Republican. Though, it is important to note that his study refers to childhood vaccines rather than the COVID-19 vaccine. Although academic research supported the old claim, some people found that one’s political party is unrelated to their views on mandated vaccinations. Motta notes that past studies differed in many ways, such as how one’s vaccine skepticism was measured, which led to many findings likely to be incomplete. He, Motta, found that PID – partisan identification – where the respondent themselves identifies their party, could lead to better correlation between ideology and vaccine skepticism. The result of his study concludes that there is a noteworthy effect of Conservative or Republican identification on anti-vaccination beliefs as well as vaccine misinformation acceptance. This is in direct agreement and correlation to the political cartoon, recognizing anti-vaxxers being more than likely Republican. This conclusion is in complete contrast to a public opinion survey done by Motta, where 72% of respondents thought people who hold anti-vaccine beliefs are more likely to identify as Democrat. It is important to recognize that there are many different viewpoints to this argument, and it is unfair and untrustworthy to only acknowledge one.  

The political cartoon by McKee effectively presents the idea that Donald Trump was a main factor of the increasing popularity of vaccine misinformation and propaganda. The aggressive elephant represents anti-vaxxers, and Trump supporters on a broader scale. The medical professionals depict a pro-science, more liberal point of view. Based on the studies mentioned and research done, McKee was highly accurate in his illustrations. Misinformation of the vaccine has been highly aimed at Conservatives, but more specifically Trump supporters. Former president Donald Trump has taken this initiative himself and advocate anti-vaccine propaganda throughout his presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic via social media. A question to be further evaluated could be something along the lines of why are these people more susceptible to accepting vaccine misinformation, how did this all begin in the first place?  

  

Works Cited 

Blake, Aaron. “How Those Ivermectin Conspiracy Theories Convinced People to Buy Horse Dewormer.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Sept. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/24/how-rights-ivermectin-conspiracy-theories-led-people-buying-horse-dewormer/. 

Brumfiel, Geoff. “Inside the growing alliance between anti-vaccine activists and pro-Trump Republicans.” NPR, NPR, 6 Dec. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/1057344561/anti-vaccine-activists-political-conference-trump-republicans. 

Dolan, Eric W. “Study indicates Donald Trump was the main anti-vaccination influencer on Twitter in 2020.” PsyPost, 8 June 2021, https://www.psypost.org/2021/06/study-indicates-donald-trump-was-the-main-anti-vaccination-influencer-on-twitter-in-2020-61032. 

McKee, Rick. “Anti-parasite drug.” Counterpoint, 25 Aug. 2021, https://politicalcartoons.com/sku/254783.  

Motta, Matthew. “Republicans, Not Democrats, Are More Likely to Endorse Anti-Vaccine Misinformation.” American Politics Research, vol. 49, no. 5, 2021, pp. 428–438. 

“Rick McKee.” Political Cartoons, Cagle Cartoons, 2022, https://politicalcartoons.com/cartoonist/rick-mckee/. 

 

Process Reflection: 

This was my first time writing an in-depth argumentative essay with a research topic picked completely on my own. It was difficult and confusing when I began. So, to help myself, when working on my first draft, I sectioned out each body paragraph and wrote down what needed to be in it so that it was organized nicely. This helped me greatly because before I did this, I felt so erratic, and didn’t even know where to begin. For my second draft, I went back into my paper and tidied it up. This was mostly making sure I wasn’t repeating myself or dragging my topic out, and I used more academic words. I rearranged my paragraphs so the paper overall would flow better. I also improved my conclusion, mostly adding background information into it, writing better transitional sentences, and inserting a new idea – something others can ponder even after they’re done reading. I tried a new skill that significantly helped me during this assignment, which was writing summaries of the articles used for the annotated bibliography when I first read them. When writing my research paper, I didn’t have to reread the articles in their entirety, just touch up on some main points here and there.