Politicians Receive Coronavirus Vaccine Before Others [POLL]

NEW YORK — After the vaccines to combat the new coronavirus started rolling out and getting administered, first to health care workers and then to nursing home residents and staffs, grumbling began about people clamoring to jump the line and get vaccinated.

On Dec. 18, Republican Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, rolled up their sleeves and received shots. In short order, Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, all got vaccinated.

Obviously, none of them are health care workers, but under "continuity of government planning," senior officials in the three branches of federal government — the White House, Congress and the judiciary — are being offered vaccinations against the coronavirus, according to Roll Call.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said there had been priority discussions even before the Pfizer vaccine was approved.

He was quoted in Roll Call that, besides the importance of keeping government operating, many in Congress are in the high-risk categories because of age.

The National Security Council issued a statement saying that top officials in the three branches of federal government were indeed given priority for the vaccine, Axios reported.

So Rubio, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republicans who have at times denied the dangers of the new coronavirus, were among the first Americans to be vaccinated.

MSNBC opinion columnist Dean Obeidallah pointed out that Graham, who refused to take a coronavirus test before his October debate with challenger Jaime Harrison, was filmed in July at an indoor political gathering not wearing a mask. Ernst underplayed the deadliness of the virus and opposed mandating the use of masks.

Obeidallah wrote that it was hypocritical that the senators who openly spoke against the severity of the virus should avail themselves of the vaccine.

And then there's Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-Bronx, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky.

AOC put a video on social media of her getting vaccinated recently, explaining the process and giving her followers a chance to ask questions about the process.

Paul, an ophthalmologist who said he will not get the vaccine until all front-line health care workers and the elderly have gotten the shot, the New York Post said, took issue with her doing so.

He criticized Ocasio-Cortez for being vaccinated, because he said a young healthy person should be one of the last to get the vaccine, not one of the first.

She took to Twitter to respond to Paul, saying, "Gee, maybe if the GOP hadn't spent so much time undermining public faith in science, masks, & COVID itself, I wouldn't have to weigh the potential misinfo consequences of what wld happen if leaders urged ppl to take a new vaccine that we weren't taking ourselves!"

Now it's your turn to weigh in on the issue. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.