During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper this week, Political pollster Frank Luntz said that “every time” Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks, “he turns off people” to getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
“You had on earlier Tom Frieden, Dr. Frieden, who’s probably the best communicator in the country on this stuff,” Luntz said. “And Anderson, I’m going to tell you something, which probably you don’t want to hear. But I’d rather see Tom Frieden on the show than Anthony Fauci on this show because Fauci has become so politicized, so polarized, that every time he speaks, he actually turns off people.”
“We need more people, more experts like, like Tom Friedman, who are active and know the data and know-how to communicate it is personal responsibility, not some sort of national discussion,” Luntz added. “And the most important fact of all, if over 90% of doctors have been vaccinated, don’t they know something that you may not know? Because the problem is they’re trusting their cousin, rather than their doctor.”
Cooper responded, “So it’s interesting what you said about Dr. Fauci because he viewed you’re saying through a political lens by a large segment of the population who was vaccine-hesitant and refusing to take it, because he’s been labeled that then they discount anything he has to say, or in fact, do the opposite.”
“Exactly,” Luntz said. “And, and you’re serious. And this is a serious show. And by the way, it’s 1:40 a.m., here in London, and I got up to make sure I stayed up to make sure I can do this. If we are serious about it, it means we have to put the best folks, people out there.”
“And it also means we can’t demonize the people that we’re trying to win over, that you don’t hate people because they make the wrong decisions. You love them and try to educate them and try to move them,” Luntz added. “Look, I get frustrated and I acknowledge that in the last focus group I did. But we got it. We got to do this. And so demonizing these people and then asking them to follow a proper course, they won’t do it.”
Anthony Fauci has become “so politicized, so polarized that every time he speaks he actually turns off people,” to the vaccines, says pollster Frank Luntz.
"If we are serious about it, it means we have to put the best spokespeople out there," he adds. pic.twitter.com/RtGWhecdL6
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) July 27, 2021
Luntz’s comments come as the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant increases the importance to encourage others to get vaccinated. According to the Wall Street Journal, “99% of hospitalizations for Covid-19 are among unvaccinated people. The vaccines are as good as first heralded, even against new variants. That unvaccinated people are still being hospitalized underscores the continuing need to get as many people vaccinated as possible.”
