'It's Time to Start Blaming the Unvaccinated,' Alabama's GOP Governor Says
Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey expressed frustration with those who are eligible to get the vaccine but remain unvaccinated, saying they are “letting us down.”
On Thursday, Ivey was asked by reporters what is it going to take to get people vaccinated. The governor, seemingly flabbergasted replied, “I don’t know. You tell me. Folks are supposed to have common sense.”
Ivey then went on to blame the unvaccinated for the recent surge in covid cases, driven by the Delta variant, which currently represents more than 80 percent of the new positive cases nationwide.
“It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down,” Ivey said.
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Over the past two weeks, there have been nearly 10,000 new cases in Alabama alone. Less than 34 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated. According to the CDC Alabama is the only state in the nation with fewer than 40 percent of eligible residents vaccinated as compared to the 48.8 percent of Americans nationally who are fully vaccinated. Mississippi is second from the bottom, with 40.1% of eligible people fully vaccinated.
“Almost 100 percent of the new hospitalizations are with unvaccinated folks. And the deaths are certainly occurring with the unvaccinated folks,” Ivey said. “These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain.”
Still, it’s important to note that some people may not yet be able to receive the vaccine, including children under 12 years of age and some people with certain medical conditions. That should only further underscore how crucial it is that eligible people get vaccinated, to protect themselves and others.
Ivey’s remarks echo what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky’s said earlier this month when labeling the current surge in cases “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
“I want folks to get vaccinated,” Ivey said. “That’s the cure. That prevents everything.”
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