* Dean Olsen…

With a new nationwide poll showing Republicans three times more likely than Democrats to avoid getting COVID-19 shots, a Central Illinois congressman and loyal member of the GOP said Thursday he wants to reduce vaccine hesitancy regardless of political affiliation.

“I want to encourage everyone that this is safe,” U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said during a visit to the COVID-19 mass-vaccination site operated by the Sangamon County Department of Public Health and Illinois National Guard at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. […]

“Putting a political litmus test on the vaccination process is something that I’m trying to warn against,” Davis said. “We, right now, have to believe in our scientists that actually do the clinical trials and the private-sector ingenuity that has allowed us to get safe and effective vaccines.

“And if you’re worried about the vaccines being safe, I will tell you, I don’t feel a computer chip in my arm, and also, hundreds of thousands of people right here in Central Illinois have safely gotten all three of these vaccines,” Davis said. “It’s safe. It’s effective. Go get it done.”

The latest NPR/Marist poll shows that 46 percent of Republican men say they won’t be vaccinated. That’s in line with its previous polling which had the “No” answer at 49 percent. 40 percent of Donald Trump voters also say they won’t be vaccinated.

Meanwhile, just 22 percent of Black respondents said they wouldn’t take the shot and a mere 9 percent of Democratic women are also refusing the vaxes.

* As NPR points out, we can’t get to herd immunity until more folks like those Republican men are vaccinated. Ironically, many of those same folks were insisting last year that the all-important herd immunity could be reached if the virus was simply allowed to run its course. That argument didn’t hold up so well when more than half a million people died. But now that there’s a real chance to reach herd immunity with vaccines, too many are balking.

More Republican Party leaders need to step up here like Davis did. Some have, but many more need to follow the lead of Black politicos and set a very public example, especially now that positivity rates are on the rise. Effingham County’s positivity rate, for example, is now 7.4 percent, as is McHenry County’s.