Oklahoma Diner Customers Tell CNN They Won’t Get Vaccinated Even If Trump Told Them to: Why Listen to a ‘Liberal New Yorker’ Like Him?

The nation’s battle to reach herd immunity against the Covid-19 virus could face an uphill challenge if one Oklahoma diner crowd’s unanimous reluctance to get the shot is any indication.

CNN’s Gary Tuchman traveled to the far western end of the Sooner State’s panhandle to talk with overwhelmingly pro-Trump citizens of Boise City, 92% of whom voted for the former president in the 2020 election. And he discovered widespread skepticism about the virus — even if Trump himself urged them to take the vaccine. These anecdotal responses echoed the results of a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, which found 47% of Trump supporters — and 49% of self-identified Republican men — said they have no intention of getting inoculated against the coronavirus.

Tuchman’s report began in a local diner, where he asked for a show of hands in the restaurant of those who thought getting one of the three FDA-approved vaccines was a good idea. Not a single arm among the 17 customers was raised.

The first man Tuchman interviewed one-on-one said he wouldn’t take the vaccine because “I don’t trust the government and I don’t trust Biden.” But two of the three vaccines, from  Pfizer and Moderna, were developed, reviewed, and approved while Trump was still president.

Next up, a married couple. When Tuchman asked the husband why he didn’t want to get the Covid vaccine, the man seemed to doubt its efficacy and mistake the mild symptoms that follow inoculation with getting the actual viral infection.

“When I take the flu shot, I usually get the flu, so there’s no reason to take it,” the man explained.

“So are you saying you’ll get Covid by taking the Covid vaccine?” Tuchman clarified.

“Probably.”

When Tuchman pressed him about the many studies and research that contradict this claim — in fact, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have efficacy rates of 95% and were 100% effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths in their clinical trials — the husband shrugged and responded: “That’s just my choice.”

Two sisters interviewed by Tuchman likewise had no interest. When Tuchman asked why, one sister offered up a new reason: “they just started rolling them out.” Again, the CNN reporter pushed back, alluding to the global effort over the past year to create the vaccines, the sister pivoted to a new, inaccurate claim: “Ok, well you claim the flu can be cured, and yet hundreds of thousands of people die from the flu.” When presented with the fact that the coronavirus is much more transmissible and deadly than the seasonal flu, the woman essentially shut down, saying: “Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree.”

Next, a table of four skeptical men, one of whom said: “I’m just — I’m just not I’m not going to take it.” Tuchman asked if Trump making a public plea for people to get vaccinated — as he did on Tuesday night on Fox News — the man still demurred. And before Tuchman could follow up, another man at the table delivered a stunning rationalization for their collective reluctance: “Trump’s a liberal New Yorker. Why would we listen to him either?”

“Did you vote for him?” Tuchman pressed.

“He was the best option,” the man responded.

Over at the town supermarket, Tuchman found a grocery store manager who wasn’t planning on getting the vaccine in the future — because he’d already gotten the shot. His reason for bucking the local trend? “My wife.”

Tuchman’s final dispatch from Boise City included a statement from the local hospital, which described the town’s response to its ample supply of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine as “fair.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.