Abdul El-Sayed has an article in TNR about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' latest endeavor to stake out anti-vaxx turf, promising a full-scale legal investigation into "any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to Covid-19 vaccines." El-Sayed dubs DeSantis' strategy "vaccine McCarthyism", which is a term I appreciate. After all, is not today's GOP little more than equal shares of Joseph and Jenny McCarthy?
I tend to think that anti-vaxx politics are a trap for the GOP. Yes, anti-vaxx views are passionately held by the conspiratorial Republican base, which means that under the God-given rules of media fairness we must treat that position with the utmost seriousness. But anti-vaxx politics remain broadly unpopular even with Republicans, to say nothing of independents (or Democrats). Much like (either) McCarthy, opposing vaccines may gain DeSantis press and clout for a little while, but it's likely to make him an irrelevant laughingstock in the long term.
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