Even as stronger, deadlier variants of the virus that's killed over 600 thousand Americans continue to emerge, certain Republican lawmakers and media personalities continue to smear lifesaving vaccines and efforts to get them administered to as many Americans as possible.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is one of those lawmakers. Johnson has previously said he was "suspicious" of the effort to vaccinate everyone. He's held press conferences rife with disinformation devoted to discouraging people from receiving the vaccine. His efforts saw his home paper describe him as the "most irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens since the infamous Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy[.]"
In a recent Fox News interview, however, Johnson came out in favor of vaccine mandates—but with one mind-numbing caveat.
Watch below.
In an interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade if he'd support a vaccine mandate, Johnson said:
"No, not unless there's some incredibly deadly disease. I mean, much higher infection and fatality rates than we have with COVID."
To date, the virus death toll in the United States is at 629,391, while the global death toll is over four million. With an insufficient number of residents vaccinated, new strains of the virus can become more transmissible and more deadly.
People were livid at Johnson's dismissal of the threat posed by the virus.
His response was panned across the internet.
Johnson continues to promote vaccine skepticism.
