Alabama governor on rising COVID-19 cases: ‘Time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks’

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) declared that it’s “time to start blaming the unvaccinated” for the surge in coronavirus infections in her state.

The governor, visibly exasperated while discussing the need to get a COVID-19 vaccination shot, was asked by local reporters Thursday what more can be done to boost vaccination rates.

“I don’t know, you tell me!” Ivey said. “Folks supposed to have common sense.”

“But it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down,” she continued.

By the numbers: Ivey’s comments come as her state grapples with one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

Only 48.7 percent of the population age 12 and up has received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 39.6 percent have been fully inoculated,

Meanwhile, the state has seen its average daily new cases quadruple in the past two weeks, reaching 1,133 on Thursday, according to data from The New York Times.

Ivey said it should be “crystal clear” that the new cases and hospitalizations are being reported among the unvaccinated.

“These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle and self-inflicted pain,” Ivey told reporters. “You know we’ve got to get folks to take the shot. The vaccine is the greatest weapon we have to fight COVID, there’s not question about that, the data proves it.”