New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Fact check: Lamont boasts ‘most effective’ U.S. vaccine rollout
Gov. Ned Lamont ratcheted up his campaign against GOP rival Bob Stefanowski this week by releasing his second television ad, titled “Projecting Strength.”
In the ad, Lamont touts the state's path to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a record of recent budget surpluses and a proposed property tax cut.
ConnectiFact, an occasional Hearst Connecticut Media Group series examining the truth behind statements made by candidates, has reviewed one of Lamont's claims in the ad relating to his administration's efforts to distribute millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines over the last year.
ConnectiFact evaluates each statement and rates it on the following scale: “True,” “Mostly True,” “It's Complicated” and “False.” There is a fifth category reserved for the most outlandish claims that fall outside the bounds of everyday truth-stretching.
Claim: “We developed the most effective vaccination rollout in the country,” Lamont said in the campaign ad.
Connectifact Rating:
Mostly True
Connecticut certainly saw one of the strongest responses to the nationwide vaccination effort that began in early 2021 — as evidenced by the state's 78.7 percent vaccination rate — but whether it was the leader in that effort depends on several factors, and who you ask.
For one, several states and territories, including Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island, currently have overall vaccination rates that are slightly higher than
Connecticut, according to the Mayo Clinic.
At the same time, the 95 percent of Connecticut residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine is tops in the nation, albeit tied with two other states and Washington, D.C.
It's worth noting, however, that Lamont boasted about the effectiveness of his administration's efforts, something that is difficult to quantify. Even the most well-oiled campaign to make vaccines easily available will produce limited results if people simply refuse to get the shot.
Dan Morrocco, Lamont's campaign manager, said Wednesday the effectiveness of Connecticut's vaccine rollout could be measured by its early successes such as being the first state in the country to vaccinate half of adults, and later the first to reach a 70 percent vaccination rate for adults.
“By bringing together public health officials, business and community leaders, educators, parents and essential workers — Connecticut was able to get more of its population vaccinated faster in that critical period than any other state in the country,” Morrocco said in a statement.
The source for Lamont's claim that appeared in the ad was an article published by WABC in New York last November under a headline stating that Connecticut had “the most vaccinated adults” in the country, with a vaccination rate of 84 percent.
That article also noted, however, that Connecticut lagged around the middle of the pack in terms of booster delivery.
Those numbers have since improved slightly, with Connecticut ranking 12th for percentage of eligible residents who have received an additional dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Like the nation as a whole, Connecticut has also struggled to keep vaccination rates high across all segments of the population, particularly among Black and Latino residents who are at heightened risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19.
While Lamont spent $13 million in federal relief money to promote vaccine equity, Black and Latino populations still have lower overall rates of vaccination, according to state data.
Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist at Hartford Healthcare, said Connecticut and other states atop the vaccination rate charts shared largely similar strategies and were effective at communicating information about their rollouts to the public.
Still, he said, those states faced headwinds from many Americans' reluctance to get vaccinated.
“I would say based on our vaccination rate, (Lamont) could lay claim to it if he wanted to, because we've done a good job,” Wu said. “But remember, it's all relative because we could do better, as everybody could do better. Just because we are the best of I will say a mediocre nationwide vaccination rate, it doesn't mean that we can't do better.”