Republican governors urge vaccine-hesitant residents to get Covid shots

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Leaders of Arkansas, West Virginia, and Utah describe high stakes as Delta variant poses threat

Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas warned of trouble ahead without more vaccinations. Photograph: Staton Breidenthal/AP
Edward Helmore in New York

Mon 5 Jul 2021 14.02 EDT

Several Republican governors with lagging vaccine rates in their states have urged residents to accept the shots as the Biden administration comes under pressure to reopen US borders to overseas visitors.

The Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, West Virginia’s Jim Justice and Spencer Cox of Utah warned against vaccine hesitancy, which some disease experts, including the White House chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said could create “two types of America”.

“We are in a race,” Hutchinson said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. About 32% of people in Arkansas are fully vaccinated, compared with 47.9% nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. “If we stopped right here, and we didn’t get a greater per cent of our population vaccinated, then we’re going to have trouble in the next school year and over the winter.” The solution, he said, “is the vaccinations”.

In a Fourth of July address on Sunday, Joe Biden called vaccination “the most patriotic thing you can do”, saying the US had moved into a new phase of virus response. But he also warned that while the country is “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus”, the effort was not complete. “We’ve got a lot more work to do,” he said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/05/us-coronavirus-vaccinations-republican-governors-states

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. Good luck with that...

[mpcamb]

7. What a bold, humanitarian, timely and brave move... or maybe it's their statewide death count.

[NullTuples]

2. "Okay, I know we encouraged you to build your identity on COVID-denial, but..."

[durablend]

3. They can't do that

They need to "own teh libs"

[liberalgunwilltravel]

4. Freedom isn't free

Freedom isn’t free and neither is stupid!

[Chainfire]

5. The Republicans spent a year denying Covid

and then they wonder why their people aren't getting vaccinated?

[Turbineguy]

6. Hmmm.... do they think that dead people don't vote?

[ladym55]

8. A little late in the day, folks

So apparently these governors (after pretending Covid is no big deal) realize that Covid will do some big-time damage to their people and their health care system.

Why Covid has been a partisan issue rather than a unifying public health issue has never made sense. Destroying your health to "own the libs" just doesn't seem to be a good payoff.

[Skittles]

9. it became a partisan issue because of Trump

that piece of shit extreme narcissist didn't like being upstaged by a VIRUS so he politicized it

[ladym55]

10. And the lemmings followed along .... nt

[moose65]

11. Yep. This is ALL Trump's fault

And the great irony is that he sadly would have won re-election if his administration hadn’t been so half-assed in their response to the pandemic. It is amazing to me that this has become politicized. The virus doesn’t give a shit about your political beliefs.

I know what Trump SAID, but he also had the virus and also got the vaccine. Do his disciples not see what he DOES, as well as what he says??

[IronLionZion]

12. He and his family have been vaccinated

I bet Tucker Carlson has been vaccinated while telling his idiot audience not to trust it