Mitt Romney calls out conservative media figures casting vaccine doubt: It's 'frankly moronic'

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 14 July 2021

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) had some harsh words for conservative media figures who have been casting doubt on COVID-19 vaccines over the past few months while speaking to reporters Tuesday, per The New York Times.

"We don't control conservative media figures," Romney said. "I might have done better in 2012 if I did. That said, it's an enornmous error for anyone to suggest that we shouldn't be taking vaccines and the politicization of vaccination is an outrage and frankly moronic."

Romney issued a similar statement on Tuesday, when asked by HuffPost about attendees of last weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas who cheered when a speaker noted that the U.S. had not yet met the Biden administration's vaccination goals. "It's grossly misfortunate and a huge human cost to have made vaccination political," he told HuffPost. "After all President Trump and his supporters take credit for developing the vaccine, why the heck won't they take advantage of taking the vaccine they received plaudits for having developed?"

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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