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In fact, many people in Missouri get very sick, and almost all of them are not vaccinated. Less than 100 miles from the Ozarks, in Springfield, an effort at all levels has been launched to once again tackle the pandemic. Striving to get hospital staff to meet the demand, state lawmakers have asked the governor to sign a waiver that will allow registered nurses to come from other states. Coaches, religious leaders, firefighters and health workers are begging all local groups to get vaccinated.
This prompted the vaccination rate to exceed 40 percent, not enough to achieve herd immunity, Springfield Mayor Ken McClure said. McClure said he must have been more outspoken in the way he addressed residents. When a father told him that his daughter had not been vaccinated because she feared she would not be able to conceive, McClure replied: “She cannot conceive if she is dead”.
“We hear a lot of anecdotal stories from young people, no underlying health issue going in without vaccination and they died within days,” McClure said. “It’s going to spread statewide, we’re the tip of the spear.”
Missouri has seen an aggressive increase in Covid cases since early July, representing one of the nation’s largest epidemics. The number of cases and hospitalizations are back to levels not seen since the height of the pandemic last year. Over the past seven days, the state has averaged 1,500 new cases of Covid per day – the highest in six months – and an average of three deaths per day, according to the state’s health department.
Over the past week, prominent Republicans and conservatives have apparently been awakening to the promotion of the vaccine as cases explode. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, whose state has seen a 400% increase in Covid vaccinations in recent weeks, said: “It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated, not the common people. It’s the unvaccinated people who let us down. And Fox News’ Sean Hannity told viewers “I believe in the science of vaccination.”
The Biden administration is hoping conservative influencers can help convince those hardened against the vaccine to drop their opposition. But past attempts at persuasion have not fully worked.
The alternative is a heavier approach, which the White House has so far resisted. But there were indications from those interviewed that if they were deprived of the ability to travel or work unless they were first vaccinated, they would in fact be vaccinated. In one case, Lindsey Simon, a waitress at the Margaritaville complex, said she finally got her first shot because she feared she wouldn’t be able to make it to a state fair in Springfield, Ill., Where she has tickets to a show “on my to-do list” – actor and comedian, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias.
And yet, even though demanding vaccines is the lever the Biden administration ends up pulling, those who know Missouri say they don’t expect people’s behavior to suddenly change overnight. There are cultural elements at play here, after all, more powerful than mere political acts.
“The irony is that it’s not the stupid Missouri rubes who don’t understand the nature of this disease,” Gregg Keller, a longtime Republican consultant in Missouri. “Missourians understand this much better than these so-called medical experts to whom we give tens of millions of dollars every year. “
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