West Virginia falls from 1st to worst in vaccine efforts
KENOVA, W.VA. — When COVID-19 vaccines first became available, Ric Griffith’s family-owned drugstore was among 250 mom-andpop pharmacies that helped West Virginia get off to the fastest start of any state in vaccinating its residents.
Republican Gov. Jim Justice went on national news shows to declare West Virginia — a place that regularly ranks near the bottom in many health indicators — “the diamond in the rough.”
Nine months later, those days are a distant memory. Demand for the vaccine has almost dried up, the ques- tion of whether to get a shot has become a political hot button, and West Virginia’s vaccination rate has plum- meted to the lowest among the states, by the federal government’s reckoning.
The governor, who spent months preaching the virtues of the vaccine to reluc- tant West Virginians, is still doing that but is also promoting a new law that would allow some exemptions to employer-imposed vaccination requirements.
And those shots? They’re mostly sitting on shelves.
“I’m afraid we discovered that there were more laps to go in the race,” Griffith, who is also a Democratic member of the state House of Dele- gates, said of West Virginia’s descent from first to worst.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41% of West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 49% have had at least one dose. The CDC says the state’s rate of about 89,000 doses administered per 100,000 popu- lation is the nation’s worst.
Officials with West Virginia’s coronavirus task force claim that the state’s percentage is actually higher and that the CDC reports only part of the data.
Nationally, 57.5% of the population is fully vaccinated and 66.5% has gotten at least one dose.
In West Virginia, it wasn’t for lack of trying. For months, Justice offered an assortment of giveaways to encourage people to get vaccinated. Toting his dour-faced pet bulldog around the state, he dispensed cash, cars, pickup trucks, ATVs, riding lawn mowers, tickets to college athletic events and college scholarships.
But the state’s vaccination rate barely budged. By the fall, a new wave of sickness and death arrived. Hospitals saw a crush of patients, and the number of active cases, which had dipped below 1,000 in early July, ballooned to nearly 30,000 by mid-September mid-September before before fall- falling sharply. The number of deaths from the outbreak has soared to about 4,400.
West Virginia has the nation’s third-oldest pop- ulation, ulation, with with nearly nearly 20% 20% of of of its residents over 65. Health officials said most of the virus deaths have involved people in that vulnerable age group.
The governor continues to encourage residents to wear masks and stay out of crowds and has scolded the unvaccinated. “We should be very respectful of others,” he said recently. “The more of us that are vaccinated, the less will die.”
Griffith said he was proud of Justice’s nonstop effort to push vaccines “and the obvi- ous love he has for the peo- ple of West Virginia.” a mandate opposed mask statewide But requirements Justice vaccination in June indoor also and ended since. mask and has And through in October the GOP-controlled he pushed Legislature a bill allowing workers to use medical or religious exemptions to get out of employer-required COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The law takes effect in January. uary.
The bill was introduced after President Joe Biden announced plans to require that federal contractors and employees at all U.S. busi- nesses nesses nesses with with with 100 100 100 or or or more more more workers be fully vaccinated.