Alabama GOP governor upbraids the unvaccinated

Kay Ivey, Alabama’s Republican governor has lashed out residents of her own state, the most unvaccinated in the US: “Folks are supposed to have common sense,” she told reporters in Birmingham on Thursday, reports. Al.com  “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down. … I’ve done all I know how to do. I can encourage you to do something, but I can’t make you take care of yourself.”

Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate in the US, with 39.6% of residents fully vaccinated, compared with 48.8% of the US population. The state has seen a 70% increase in daily cases over the past week, reports the Washington Post. The vast majority of new cases and deaths involve unvaccinated residents.

CDC chief Rochelle Walensky said Thursday that the delta variant is “one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and that I have seen in my 20-year career,” reports CNBC

Pro-Trump America

David Frum writes in The Atlantic that the pandemic in the US would largely be history by now if vaccination rates hadn’t tailed off in recent months. “Experts list many reasons for the vaccine slump, but one big reason stands out: vaccine resistance among conservative, evangelical, and rural Americans,” he writes. “Pro-Trump America has decided that vaccine refusal is a statement of identity and a test of loyalty.”