Republican Governor Blames Partisanship for Low Vaccination Rates

• Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) remarked that partisanship is partially to blame for the lowering demand for the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Conservative regions had mostly resisted the vaccine, with only about half of Republicans receiving at least one dose.
• The Delta variant, which has already dominated COVID-19 cases in under-vaccinated states, has prompted the continued push to increase the country’s vaccination rate.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) expressed his concerns that partisanship is causing the decline in COVID-19 vaccine demand.

President Joe Biden had set a goal to have a vaccination rate of at least 70% of the U.S. adult population by July 4. That goal was not met on Sunday, with only about 67% of American adults now vaccinated. Utah only had a 64% vaccination rate.

Conservative regions had mostly resisted the vaccine, prompting Cox’s remarks during his Sunday interview on CBS‘ “Face the Nation.”

Cox said, “Well, it’s troubling… that politics is becoming religion in our country, that politics is becoming sport and entertainment in our country, that everything is political. It’s a huge mistake.”

He found it “deeply troubling” that it has led to “bad decisions during this pandemic and in other phases of our life as well.”

About eight in 10 Democrats have received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared with only about half of Republicans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that vaccine hesitancy could create “two types of America,” that divide vaccinated citizens from those who are not.

Several Republican governors of states with notably low vaccination rates have urged residents to receive the vaccine.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, whose state only has a 32% vaccination rate, said on CNN‘s “State of the Union” on Sunday that it could cause “trouble in the next school year and over the winter.”

Biden continued to urge everyone to help ramp up the vaccination rate on Tuesday, comparing what Americans “were able to do last year at this time” to after the vaccinations.

He announced the opening of more mobile clinics and urged employers to offer paid time off for employees looking to get their shots.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, “You don’t just give up just because you haven’t reached every single person.”

The Delta variant, which currently makes up 20.6% of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S., has prompted the continued push to increase the country’s vaccination rate.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told CNN in June that the Delta outbreak could be “hyper-regionalized.” High-risk areas include rural and southern states with low vaccination rates, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Wyoming.

The Delta variant has already started dominating COVID-19 cases in under-vaccinated states, causing more than 80% of new infections in Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, and Missouri.

Fauci has recently called the Delta variant “the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19.”

Source: PEOPLE