Bloomberg on Wednesday released a lengthy report about why supporters of former President Donald Trump are unwilling to get vaccinated -- and the former president's promotion of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine appears to be part of the puzzle.
Specifically, Bloomberg talked with health officials in heavily pro-Trump counties who say that "some residents still believe that hydroxychloroquine, a malaria treatment Trump promoted without evidence as a coronavirus remedy, can cure Covid-19."
And it's because of their faith in the power of hydroxychloroquine, these officials say, that they don't need to get vaccinated.
Resistance to the vaccines has come even after Trump said that Americans should take them and after he repeatedly boasted about their development during his administration.
Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi's state health officer, tells Bloomberg that his state suffers from a "culture of illness" that rejects preventative care such as vaccines.
Even though Trump promoted hydroxychloroquine as a "game changer," multiple studies have shown it is not effective at treating the novel coronavirus.
In fact, when Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 last fall, he was given a massive cocktail of drugs that did not include hydroxychloroquine.