Politico reports:

The Republican Party is being torn apart by the debate over whether to more aggressively promote Covid-19 vaccines, pitting those alarmed by the virus’ resurgence against a faction that has spent weeks sowing fear about the immunization push.

The deepening divide became apparent this week on Capitol Hill and across the party, with a contingent of prominent conservatives vocally advocating for the shots — even as others emphasized the need for the GOP to stick to principles of “individual liberty” and stay out of Americans’ medical decisions.

While top Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey pleaded with people to get vaccinated, others downplayed the threat of a Covid-19 resurgence — wary of angering a GOP base that views the sputtering vaccination effort as a political blow to President Joe Biden.

A news conference with Republican doctors in Congress, ostensibly to discuss the Delta variant, instead turned into a forum for the lawmakers to repeat unverified claims that the virus escaped from a lab in China, and to bash Democrats for not thoroughly investigating Covid’s origins.

“That is their choice,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) said when pressed about whether Republicans should urge people to get vaccinated. “It is our patriotic duty to care for other people, but it is also our patriotic duty to understand that we have individual rights in this country.”

That wariness among much of the Republican Party, borne out in 11 interviews with GOP policymakers, could further complicate the pandemic response as the Delta variant drives up case counts and hospitalizations while fewer Americans line up for shots. The deteriorating situation is likely to weigh heaviest on GOP voters: eight of the 10 states where Covid-19 hospitalizations were rising fastest are led by Republican governors. [Continue reading…]