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- House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, the second House Republican, revealed he received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday.
- Scalise previously said he was not vaccinated because he had COVID-19 antibodies.
- The congressman called the vaccines “safe and effective” and cited the rapidly spreading Delta variant as the reason for getting the vaccine.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, the second House Republican, revealed he received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday amid growing concern over the rapidly spreading Delta variant.
For months, Scalise told reporters he would get the vaccine “soon”, but said he believed he had some immunity to the coronavirus because he had antibodies to what he believed to be a mild infection. .
This week, Scalise took a different tone, calling COVID-19 vaccines “safe and effective.”
“Especially with the Delta variant getting a lot more aggressive and seeing another spike, it was a good time to do it,” he told Nola.com, according to a report on Tuesday. “When you talk to people who run hospitals, in New Orleans or other states, 90% of people hospitalized with a delta variant haven’t been vaccinated. This is another signal that the vaccine is working. . “
The Delta variant, which is significantly more contagious and dangerous than other strains of the virus, currently accounts for about 83% of all new COVID-19 cases in the United States, CDC director Rochelle Walensky told a report on Tuesday. Senate committee.
“It’s a dramatic increase” since early July, she said.
Unvaccinated people infected with the Delta variant are twice as likely to be hospitalized as those infected with the Alpha variant, another dominant strain. Experts say those vaccinated are largely protected against Delta. The Pfizer vaccine is 88% effective in protecting against the Delta variant, research has shown.
Scalise, for its part, said it supports the United States Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use approvals for COVID-19 vaccines.
“It was tested heavily on thousands of people before the FDA gave its approval,” he told Nola.com. “Some people think it may have been rushed. It wasn’t. I’ve been talking about this for months. I know their process has high standards. The FDA approval process is probably the most respected. in the world.”
But, he argued, Americans shouldn’t be “ashamed” of getting vaccinated.
About 68.3% of American adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and about 59.5% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the New York Times. But vaccination rates vary widely from community to community. Republican voters are much less likely than Democrats to be vaccinated, and many Red states, including the home state of Scalise, Louisiana, have vaccination rates well below the national average.
Republican lawmakers have come under pressure to urge Americans to get vaccinated as cases rise in unvaccinated communities.
Senatorial Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently stepped up his advocacy for immunization, Warning that “we’re going to be back in a situation this fall … we were in last year” if more Americans aren’t vaccinated as soon as possible. He also urged people to “ignore all these other voices that are obviously giving bad advice.”
“There is no good reason not to get the vaccine. We have to finish the job,” McConnell said earlier this month. “I know there is some skepticism, but let me put it in its own way: it might not guarantee that you don’t get it, but it almost guarantees that you won’t die of it if you do. get it. “
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