Alabama governor: 'I want folks to get vaccinated'
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on July 22 blamed unvaccinated people for a recent spike in coronavirus cases in her state. (Reuters)
The pro-vaccine message is even reaching the heart of Trump country. “Folks [are] supposed to have common sense,” Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said on Thursday. “But it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.” You might say the scolding was overdue: Ivey leads the country’s least vaccinated state.
We should cheer all Republicans joining the fight against the anti-vaccine undertow in their party — and be especially appreciative of Republican officials who have been there from the beginning.
Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, has been resolute in trying to keep politics out of vaccination efforts, and spoke in an interview of his weekly calls with governors of both parties.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine are among those Republicans who have been especially passionate about getting the job done, Zients said. Republican governors of Democratic-leaning states — Phil Scott in Vermont, Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire — can be proud that their states are in the top 10 in vaccination rates.
Infuriatingly, there are still Republicans — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin among them — who continue to reinforce right-wing vaccine skepticism. The doubts they and others are spreading on Fox News (even if some in Fox News’s ranks, including Sean Hannity, seem to be repenting) and on other pro-Trump outlets have created a toxic vaccine gap.