As the Delta variant of the virus that's killed over 600 thousand Americans continues to fill hospitals and stall nationwide recovery, Republican governors are growing increasingly frustrated with the willfully unvaccinated people's bulwark against the safe return to some version of normal life.
Vaccines against the virus have repeatedly proven to be safe and effective, even against more transmissible variants like Delta. Sadly, right-wing media and even some far-right elected officials continue to sow distrust of the vaccines and any efforts to sway Americans to take them.
Like other far-right conspiracy theories, beliefs that the vaccines contain microchips or magnets or marks of beasts have leapt from the dark corners of the internet, permeating into school board meetings, private businesses, and other facets of daily life.
West Virginia's Republican Governor, Jim Justice, railed against these conspiracy theories in a recent address, visibly frustrated with the continued refusal to get vaccinated.
Watch below.
\u201cFor God\u2019s sakes a livin\u2019, how difficult is this to understand?" \n\n\u2014 Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) is losing it over anti-vaxxers and vaccine conspiracy theoristspic.twitter.com/EzsiEz8W95— The Recount (@The Recount) 1631117202
Justice said:
"For God's sakes a livin', how difficult is this to understand? Why in the world do we have to come up with these crazy ideas? And they're crazy ideas. That the vaccine's got something in it and it's tracing people wherever they go. And the same very people that are saying that are carrying their cell phones around."
This is the latest instance of Justice's continued exasperation with willfully unvaccinated West Virginia residents. Not too far away, in deep red Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey also expressed frustration at "unvaccinated folks that are letting us down" in a testy exchange with a reporter late July.
People identified with Justice's frustration.
I might not be a big Jim Justice fan, but this is the right thing to say and the right way to say ithttps://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1631126603
More of this. The vax numbers in WV aren't great because of demographics but Jim Justice keeps doing and saying all the right thingshttps://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Tim Miller (@Tim Miller) 1631126273
He's right. But as they say, \u201cIt's hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.\u201dhttps://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Emily C. Singer (@Emily C. Singer) 1631126740
Gov. Justice has reason to be frustrated.\n\nLess than 40% of West Virginians are vaccinated against COVID, and ventilator usage is at an all-time high.\n\n https://governor.wv.gov/News/press-releases/2021/Pages/COVID-19-UPDATE-Gov-Justice-Number-of-COVID-hospitalized-West-Virginians-on-ventilators-reaches-all-time-high.aspx\u00a0\u2026https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Frank Luntz (@Frank Luntz) 1631134078
My local hospital has now shut down all elective surgeries. Please, get the vaccination.https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Katherine Wyma, PhD (@Katherine Wyma, PhD) 1631133831
Others pointed out the right-wing disinformation that's hindered progress on the pandemic since the start.
Because YOUR party has been promoting these "crazy" ideas, and you know it.https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Michael Vaughan (@Michael Vaughan) 1631128098
Republicans created a monster with their vaccine conspiracy theories, and now people are dying needlessly. And now when they urge people to get vaccinated, it's not working. They have blood on their hands. They caused it. No way to escape it anymore.https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Paul Hogarth (@Paul Hogarth) 1631127952
It seems like the 40 year Republican assault on the truth, on fact, on science has had an impact.https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362\u00a0\u2026— Rabbi \ud83d\udfe3 Michael Adam Latz #BLM #VACCINESSAVELIVES (@Rabbi \ud83d\udfe3 Michael Adam Latz #BLM #VACCINESSAVELIVES) 1631133729
Hopefully Justice's urgency will convince some of his constituents.
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