OPINION:
Vice President Mike Pence took to live television to take the coronavirus vaccine in his arm — and that’s some darn good leadership right there, oh yes it is, indeed.
Moreover, he didn’t faint. Which is even better leadership. ’Cause nothing says “don’t follow me!” like a man trying to cut a “follow me, get the vaccine” public health spot who then faints.
Like that nurse did in Tennessee.
“Nurse manager Tiffany Dover had been giving a press briefing from CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, about her team being among the first to be given the COVID-19 vaccinations,” WION wrote. “Dover was happily answering questions when she suddenly started trailing off.”
She stopped happily answering questions when she fainted dead cold, right on live TV.
How rude.
That’s bad form, right there. Good thing Dohktah Anthony Fauci has already canceled Christmas. She would’ve made his naughty list for sure.
Pence, however, didn’t pass out.
He didn’t fall to the floor, a la nurse-style, as some sort of coincidental activity that had nothing whatsoever to do with the vaccine he was given 17 minutes earlier.
Nope. Pence stood strong.
He even delivered remarks after taking the shot.
“We gather here today at the end of a historic week to affirm to the American people that hope is on the way,” he said, The Hill reported. Can’t you just hear the triumphant symphonic sounds of a match made in heaven — Pence plus shot equals all of America plus shot?
The kicker, of course, was that he didn’t pass out and fall down.
Because the spinmeisters of the medical world can handle one faint, one little ol’ womanly faint. They can chalk it up to a host of other womanly factors, like anorexia, or a depleted bottle of smelling salts, or that age-old go-to — it’s that time of month. But a vice president fainting on live TV?
There’s a public relations disaster that would undoubtedly send the vaccine skeptics into overdrive.
“Intent to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine Rises to 60% as Confidence in Research and Development Process Increases,” Pew Research Center wrote on Dec. 3.
Overnight, that 60% would drop to 30% — or make that 33%, the percentage of America’s registered voters who self-identify as Democrats, according to another Pew Research Center finding from October.
Thankfully, Pence didn’t faint.
Happily, Pence stayed on his feet and even delivered proud, patriotic messaging about his proud, patriotic deed and the necessity for the rest of America to similarly take the proud, patriotic path of vaccination. After all, if Pence can take the shot, why can’t you?
“[I] didn’t feel a thing,” he crowed.
He didn’t feel a thing. Plus he didn’t faint. Which is all to say: the COVID-19 vaccine must be safe for everyone. Just don’t ask how that nurse — what’s-her-name? — is doing.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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