Kemp seeks to blame Biden for Georgia’s low vaccination rate

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ATLANTA, Georgia Georgia Governor Brian Kemp sought to blame President Joe Biden for Georgia’s low vaccination rate on Thursday as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continued to climb.

The Republican, speaking to reporters, criticized the Democratic president for not doing enough to push the Food and Drug Administration to switch its emergency authorization for vaccines to a permanent one. Kemp said urging people to use masks again is a mixed message that could discourage vaccination.

The governor reiterated his call for people to get vaccinated against the disease, saying he would only look for other solutions if hospitals in Georgia started to be overwhelmed. Georgia ranks in the bottom 10 states for immunization rates.

We know vaccines work, Kemp said. I want to encourage people to get vaccinated if you are comfortable doing so.

Democratic State Senator Michelle Au, an anesthesiologist with a master’s degree in public health, said Kemps’s approach to increasing immunization rates is unimaginative and passive. She said the state needs to do more to make it easier for people to access vaccines and should push more testing among the unvaccinated.

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We are not trying hard enough, Au said. We like to blame the unvaccinated.

Georgia recorded more than 4,800 positive tests for COVID-19 on Thursday, the worst number since February 5. The state peaked on Jan. 8, with nearly 13,000 recorded cases.

The daily number of cases has more than doubled in a week, as the most infectious delta variant rushes into the state. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has surpassed 1,800 statewide.

Georgia’s public health ministry said less than 5,000, or around 0.1%, of the 4.1 million Georgians who were fully vaccinated had tested positive for COVID-19 until Tuesday. Among them, 118 were hospitalized and 24 died.

Richmond County schools on Thursday joined a list of at least 20 districts retaining or reimposing the mandate, which now extends to one-third of Georgia’s 1.7 million public school students.

Dougherty County and Albany have resumed requiring people to wear masks inside public buildings, but WALB-TV reported the city will not require people to wear masks in businesses and other private places . Atlanta on Wednesday made masks mandatory in all indoor public spaces, including private buildings.

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The city of Doerun in southwest Georgia, meanwhile, closed its city hall lobby until August 9, citing employee exposure to COVID-19.

Infection rates were highest in southeast Georgia. Charlton County Administrator Hampton Raulerson told The Brunswick News he believes vaccination rates will increase, but community interest is low.

It’s not a lack of availability, he says. There is a lot of mistrust of the vaccine. A lot of people thought (COVID-19) was going to go away.

Kemp said he heard many people hesitate because vaccines are still only approved for emergency use.

I would love to see the Biden administration speed up the chain of operations by moving away from emergency use authorization, the governor said.

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The Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed earlier guidelines on Tuesday, recommending that even vaccinated people resume wearing masks indoors in areas with high or high transmission. CDC figures show 138 of Georgia’s 159 counties in these areas. The CDC also recommended that everyone in schools wear masks indoors. Kemp said the change was eroding confidence.

When you tell them they can get the shot and then take their mask off and turn around weeks later and reverse that, who is going to trust anyone, any politician, Republican, Democrat or whatever? Kemp said.

The governor also said he believed it was counterproductive to ask local businesses or police to enforce mask warrants.

The city of Atlanta cannot cope with violent crime right now, Kemp said. I know these officers don’t have the time to write tickets so they won’t be masked. I mean, it’s ridiculous, in my opinion.

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Kemp gave no indication, however, that he would try to rescind mask rules issued by cities or school systems, saying: I trust local school systems with local control. The governor authorized the expiration of the state of health emergency at the end of June. He had used those emergency powers to try to control local hiding orders.

Copyright 2021 by WJXT News4Jax – All rights reserved.

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