“GOP governors implore residents to overcome vaccine hesitancy,” read a headline on Sunday in The Washington Post.

‘Bout time, read I, between the lines. The three governors begging their citizens to get vaccinated are among the Republican governors who have been lackadaisical, indifferent, hostile and even obstructive to efforts to get us to what scientists call “herd immunity” against COVID-19.

Herd immunity comes when 70% to 90% of all people have been vaccinated. At that point, the virus can no longer infect willy-nilly. It won’t infect most people on whom it lands, so that specific instance of the virus dies. Its only hope is to find the unvaccinated.

Perhaps the come-to-Jesus moment for these governors was the growing dominance of COVID’s new Delta variant. Most new US infections are Delta, the federal CDC says. The governors urging citizens to get jabs were Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas, whose state is 34.6% vaccinated; Jim Justice, West Virginia, 37.5%; and Spencer Cox, Utah, 37.8%.

Those numbers are less than two-thirds of Maine’s 62.1% who have been vaccinated.

Studies show Delta is about 80% more likely to infect than the original COVID. So, 146 million unvaccinated people are nearly twice more likely to get infected by Delta than by the original COVID. The vaccinated 183 million are nearly 95% sure not to get infected.

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Delta is so virulent, reports The New York Times, that security cameras in Australia documented a transmission between two people crossing paths in a shopping mall.

I have tracked the virus infection rate for a year, pulling figures every day from The Post to update the chart in my computer. For a week, I’ve been plotting vaccination rates, also published by The Post. Now, I can compare infection and vaccination rates.

It won’t surprise you that states with the lowest vaccination rates have the biggest rises in infection rates. Take Missouri. Three weeks ago, Gov. Mike Parson lifted all pandemic limits. The Show-Me State’s infection rate rose this week by 104 per 100,000 residents.

Compare that to Maine’s increase of 11 per 100,000. Guess the virus “showed” Parson.

I don’t want to swamp your brain with numbers, but none of the eight most-vaccinated states has added more than 15 infections per 100,000 people this week.

Missouri’s three-week lead time is in keeping with the conclusion by Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that infection rates begin rising within two to three weeks when restrictions are lifted too soon.

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A recent poll showed the 74% of unvaccinated people are unlikely to get stuck, and 38% are adamant about no. Michael Lewis, who wrote “The Premonition,” a book about America’s failure to stem the virus even though our public health people knew how to do it, said Tuesday on NPR, “You can’t change people’s minds.” Those who won’t get vaccinated just won’t get vaccinated.

Still, at least these three Republican governors are trying to change people’s minds. They may have seen the light, but they may also have awakened a bit late. And they may be swimming upstream. That poll showed that 86% of Democrats have got at least one vaccine shot compared to 45% of Republicans. Remember, these are Republican states.

“The solution is the vaccinations,” Hutchinson said on CNN. “We are in a race, and if we stopped right here . . . then we’re going to have trouble in the next school year and over the winter. So, we want to get ahead of that curve.”

It is noteworthy that three governors who are using the virus to advance political goals aren’t asking people to bare arms: Ron DeSantis of Florida, which is 46.5% vaccinated; Kristi Noem, South Dakota (45.8%); and Greg Abbot, Texas (41.8%). Republicans all.

In Abbot’s Texas, more than a million people have got one vaccine dose but haven’t gone back for the second. Guess what. The Times reported this week that the Delta variant appears to pose a greater risk to people who have received only one dose.

Not to dump on all Republican governors. Of the 27 Republican governors, four have led successful vaccination campaigns: Phil Scott of Vermont (66.1% vaccinated), Charlie Baker of Massachusetts (62.2%), Chris Sununu of New Hampshire (56.8%), and Larry Hogan of Maryland (56.7%). The other 23? Not so much.

Only four states, all in New England, have vaccination rates higher than 60%, and only 20 states have rates higher than 50% of their total population.

The most striking number is that all 20 states that are more than 50% vaccinated voted for President Biden. No state voting for the former guy is at 50%. What does that tell us?

Every now and again, Bob Neal is reminded of the immortal words of comedian Ron White. “You can’t fix stupid.” The numbers bear out White’s observation. 


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