Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans still hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to “get over this political statement” and get the shot.
During an appearance Wednesday evening on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House chief medical adviser, warned that vaccine holdouts are preventing the country from moving on from the pandemic.
“Where there are high levels of vaccination, there`s low levels of infection, low hospitalization, and almost no deaths,” he said. “Where you have no vaccination, you have higher levels of infection, high risk, and hospitalization.”
“This is not complicated,” he said. “We’re not asking anybody to make any political statement one way or another. We’re saying try and save your life, and that of your family, and that of the community.”
“It’s easy to get, it’s free, and it’s readily available,” he added. “So, you know, you`ve got to ask, what is the problem? Get over it. Get over this political statement. Just get over it and try and save the lives of yourself and your family.”
Dr. Fauci also repeated his previous claim that “two Americas” may develop between predominantly vaccinated and unvaccinated regions.
“As I’ve said multiple times, Chris, it is a situation where you have almost two Americas — an at-risk, continuing to get infected, continuing to get hospitalized, unvaccinated America, and a vaccinated America that has very low level of infection, very low level of hospitalization, and very low death,” he said. “So, for the individuals within those areas that don’t want to get vaccinated, it’s going to be very risky from an individual health standpoint, from the country as a whole. It’s going to prevent us from just completely crushing this outbreak.”
“If we keep allowing the virus to circulate, wherever it is, whatever red states or whatever states are not the ones that are getting vaccinated, then you have the threat of the entire system getting in trouble because you have a new variant,” he said.
“Get over it. Get over this political statement. Just get over it and try to save the lives of yourself and your family,” says Dr. Fauci on the political polarization of the Covid vaccine. pic.twitter.com/9eqqCykBHN
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) July 8, 2021
Health, The New York Today
