There are two COVID-19 vaccines being slowly rolled out across America, one of the nations most savagely hit by the virus. And there’s one thing you have to be ready to see in droves: social media posts of people getting injected. There’s just one problem: So far the ones doing that have been Republican lawmakers who’ve spent the last near-year playing down the severity of the pandemic, if not actively making it worse. One of those people is professional pearl clutcher Marco Rubio, and when he posted a picture on Twitter of him being vaccinated, he got the opposite of likes.
I know I looked away from the needle
And yes, I know I need a tan
But I am so confident that the #Covid19 vaccine is safe & effective that I decided to take it myself pic.twitter.com/TQbog6fu7i
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 19, 2020
On one hand, he meant well: The more people in power who show themselves getting vaccinated, the more the public will ignore conspiracy theorists making baseless claims about their efficacy and do the same. On the other hand, a lot of people found it pretty rich that Rubio — who has been a senator in one of the nation’s unstoppable hotspots, who complained about the press focusing on the Trump administration’s epic mishandling of the pandemic, who even attended the outgoing president’s mask-free “superspreader” rallies, which have led to ballooning infection rates — would be among the first to get a cure.
Marco Rubio spoke at several Trump Superspreaders last month. Yesterday he cut to front of line to get vaccine pic.twitter.com/ONLwNvDCGp
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) December 20, 2020
It left a lot of people angry.
I want to know why @marcorubio @senatemajldr @LindseyGrahamSC @VP all got vaccinations while denying the pandemic is real.
— judyt (@jetrujillo1027) December 20, 2020
https://twitter.com/Goss30Goss/status/1340772880838213635
Something wrong when Marco Rubio — who downplayed COVID and mocked people wearing masks — is among first to get the vaccine.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 20, 2020
.@marcorubio, what would you call someone who politicized COVID and then took someone's opportunity for vaccine, causing someone who did everything right and needed the vaccine to get COVID and possibly die. I think "fucker" would be appropriate.
https://t.co/nOOjX1sI0j— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) December 20, 2020
Why does Rubio, a healthy 49 yr old Bible thumping Covid denier, get a vaccine before first responders?
I mean, he just jumped ahead of app. 88,000,000 American seniors at risk.
What do you have to say to little @marcorubio? pic.twitter.com/AnWyQQ98sI
— Chip Franklin.com (@chipfranklin) December 21, 2020
Celebrities were mad, too.
There are very, very few instances of known allergic reactions to the Covid-19 vaccine, but Marco Rubio has always thought of himself as one in a million so there’s still hope.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 20, 2020
That’s not you, @marcorubio, you pathetic little coward. https://t.co/nnVvf5QXj9
— Bradley Whitford (@BradleyWhitford) December 20, 2020
Because @marcorubio is a gutless, traitorous #fucker https://t.co/YHYou357Oy
— Richard Marx (@richardmarx) December 20, 2020
Some compared him to hissable movie characters.
.@marcorubio is the guy from Titanic who grabs a baby just so he can jump ahead of the line for a lifeboat.
"I have a child! I have a child!"
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) December 20, 2020
And others pointed out that Rubio is hardly the only Republican who jumped to the front of the line, butting in front of people who actually put their lives at risk to save others.
https://twitter.com/Karamo/status/1340801810458529792