The former head of the Tennessee vaccination program said conservative white men in rural areas of the state refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine “out of malice” Democratic Party.
As in most other parts of the United States, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Tennessee has been surging recently-experts blame the rise of Delta variants and vaccine hesitation.In the interview PBS‘ Amanbao In the show aired on Wednesday, Fiscus stated that Tennessee’s hesitation on vaccines was at least partly due to some residents’ fears that they would “appease the left in some way” through vaccination.
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“In Tennessee, I think in many of our southern states… [there] The ideology is that if you get this vaccine, you will somehow appease the left-wing part of the political spectrum,” Fiscus said. “What we actually see is that we are most hesitant in Tennessee. The population is white, male, and rural conservatives. They stated that they would not really be vaccinated out of malicious intent. “
“And they are willing to put themselves and the lives of their loved ones at risk,” she added. “Because they felt that if they were vaccinated, then they would appease the left, or did what the Biden administration wanted them to do.”
Fiscus was fired in July as the medical director of the Tennessee Immunization Program. She said the dismissal was politically motivated because a letter she wrote to healthcare providers correctly stated that teenagers are not legally obligated to notify their parents or seek their parents’ permission to get COVID-19 vaccines. Documents from the Tennessee Department of Health indicate that she was fired due to “lack of effective leadership” and other problems.
Multiple opinion polls indicate that politics does seem to play a role in willingness to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. The national morning consultation/political survey released on Wednesday found that Republicans 14% less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats, and those who voted for the former president Donald Trump The probability of getting vaccinated in 2020 is 17% lower than those who voted for the president Joe Biden. Trump won Tennessee by more than 20% last year.
As of Thursday, although only more than half of the US population has been fully vaccinated, the vaccination rate in Tennessee is relatively low. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state is the ninth of the 50 states with the least vaccinations. However, four of the eight states bordering Tennessee have even lower vaccination rates-Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia.
Weekly newspaper Contact the Tennessee Department of Health for comments.
