The majority wants to end COVID. Once again, Republicans are filibustering.

In this country, it takes more than a majority to give the majority what it wants.

Marco Verch (CC BY 2.0)

It shouldn’t be this hard. In fact, it shouldn’t be hard at all.

More than 600,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID, after those of us lucky enough to survive spent more than a year locked down in our homes, separated from our friends, our families, our lives. And desperate for a miracle.

That miracle came last fall, when one pharmaceutical company and then another and then another announced they had developed the miracle. And we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then  — miracle! — we got our shots. According to the CDC’s tracker, 57.1% of all eligible Americans (those aged 12 and over) have rolled up our sleeves, smiled for the camera, joyfully shared our stories of just how awful we felt for a day or so — and how deliriously grateful we felt to feel so awful.

And we started to see the future again.

But even though the majority of Americans have eagerly signed up for the miracle and happily done our part to bring an end to the pandemic that has ravaged our world, it isn’t enough.

Because, as is too often the case these days when the fate of our democracy and even our lives are at stake, Republicans are filibustering.

In May, President Joe Biden said his goal was for 70% of adult Americans to have at least one vaccine shot by the Fourth of July. If we could do that, he said, “then Americans will have taken a serious step toward a return to normal.”

That target is a key step on the path to getting our lives back. And a majority of Americans did exactly what the president asked because a majority of Americans very, very much want their lives back.

But as with so many other popular ideas in the past decade — background checks for gun purchases, raising taxes on the super-rich, making it easier to vote, expanding access to health care, and now, ending the COVID pandemic — a minority of Republicans have said no. Hell no.

We have watched this happen again and again in the United States Senate, where Democrats — who represent tens of millions more Americans — are perpetually hamstrung by Republicans. And even on those incredibly popular bills, supported even by many GOP voters, the Republican minority uses its filibuster to deny Americans what they want.

It takes a supermajority. And unfortunately, we don’t have that. Not even for ending COVID.

In Republican-controlled states across the nation, governors and lawmakers have been passing measures to all but discourage people from getting vaccinated. In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning vaccine passports, insisting that “your personal choice regarding vaccinations will be protected and no business or government entity will be able to deny you services based on your decision.”

On July 21, Florida saw its highest number of infections since January.

Also in May, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an order prohibiting state agencies, schools, and colleges from requiring vaccination. Now health experts in his state are calling on him to reissue a state of emergency amid a surge of COVID infections and hospitalizations.

In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, almost half of Republican members refuse to say whether they have been vaccinated, according to a new CNN survey, and many of them insist it’s not their responsibility to encourage their constituents to get vaccinated.

Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently got herself suspended from Twitter for spreading lies about the disease, has insisted people should not get vaccinated.

Louisiana’s Steve Scalise, the second-ranking Republican in the House, only received his first shot on July 18, after saying for months that he would get it “soon.”

In the Senate, Kentucky’s Rand Paul has outright refused to get vaccinated and two more senators refuse to say whether they’ve gotten a shot.

"I don't feel like it is my job to encourage people to do something that they don't want to do," North Dakota’s Kevin Cramer said.

Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, reached 100% vaccination months ago.

That stark difference — between Democratic lawmakers who've been vaccinated and Republican lawmakers who haven’t — is reflected throughout the country as well. 

A recent Washington Post/ABC poll found that 86% of Democrats have received at least one shot, exceeding the goal Biden set for the country. The holdup, however, is Republicans, only 45% of whom say they have received at least one dose.

Even more discouraging, 47% of Republicans say they’re unlikely to ever get vaccinated. That’s compared with just 6% of Democrats who say the same.

Vaccination rates are also lower in Republican-run states. With so many prominent GOP leaders telling people it isn’t necessary to get vaccinated — that it’s a matter of “personal choice” — that’s hardly surprising. And that's why, almost three weeks after Biden's Independence Day target, we're still short of the goal he set.

Now, as vaccination rates slow and infection rates — and hospitalization rates — go up, achieving herd immunity in the United States seems as distant as ever. The safety restrictions that so many of us thought we could leave behind are returning.

In solidly blue California, which hit Biden's 70% mark a month ahead of schedule, counties across the state are once again asking people to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated. Los Angeles County, the largest in the nation, is requiring it.

As the delta variant spreads, overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated, no one knows yet what further restrictions might be encouraged — or mandated — to keep the country from returning to its locked-down standstill of a year ago.

What is abundantly clear, though, is that even the parts of the country with higher vaccination rates are being held hostage because of the Republican minority that refuses to do its part to end the pandemic.

No one can say for certain what threshold we might need to reach in order to achieve herd immunity: Perhaps we need to have 70% of people vaccinated against COVID-19, or 80%, or even more.

But no matter what, we need a supermajority. And once again, it's obstinacy of the Republican minority dictating to the rest of us — to the vast majority of the country — preventing us from resuming a life free from fear of disease and death. 

Just like they do with every last piece of Democratic legislation in the Senate, no matter how popular, they're filibustering the end of the pandemic — and we're all paying the price.