On Thursday Kay Ivey, the Republican Governor of Alabama told reporters in Birmingham that it was time to blame the unvaccinated folks and not the regular ones in her state for the rise in COVID-19 cases across Alabama. She said that these people were letting the state down. About 83 percent of new cases of COVID-19 across the nation are due to the delta variant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that Alabama has the dubious distinction of being the least vaccinated state in the nation. Data indicates that only 33.9 percent of the state’s residents have been fully vaccinated. As the delta strain continues to spread across the nation the state has seen the daily Covid cases rise by twice as much as they were last week and four times higher than the number of cases two weeks ago.
On Thursday, when Gov. Ivey was asked if masks and other restrictions would be brought back to the state she said that the new cases were rising because of unvaccinated folks. She continued by saying that almost 100 percent of the hospitalized were those who had not taken the COVID-19 vaccine and the deaths were definitely occurring with unvaccinated folks.
When a reporter asked what it would take to mandate wearing of masks, she said that she wanted folks to get vaccinated and questioned the need to mess around with temporary stuff. She had removed the mask mandate in April while the CDC has said in May that vaccinated people need not wear masks. However, as the delta variant is spreading experts recommend that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks in locations where COVID cases are high, and vaccinations are low.
When asked, the Governor replied that she had taken both the shots. At a time when Republican leaders refuse to ask people to get vaccinated nor do they publicly state their vaccinated status, Ivey has strong words for the unvaccinated and has said that they have chosen “a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain.”
She also said that they have got to get folks to take a shot calling the vaccine “the greatest weapon we have to fight Covid.” She also called it safe and effective
Earlier, she had said that there was no need for an incentive plan for getting people to take the vaccines, despite getting federal funds for incentives. On Thursday, she said that had done all that she could do to manage the situation and when asked what could be done to get more people to take shots she replied, “I don’t know, you tell me.”
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