Gov. Jim Justice again urged West Virginians to get vaccinated for covid-19 while he and health advisers repeated warnings about the infectiousness of the delta variant.
“This delta variant supposedly is about twice as infections and it is twice as deadly. You are tremendously protected against this delta variant if you’re vaccinated,” the governor said at a briefing today.
“If this thing takes off and you’re not vaccinated it absolutely is super deadly.”
Justice today said West Virginia has confirmed 15 cases of the delta variant spread across six counties. That is up a bit from 12 confirmed cases a few days ago.
The delta variant, first identified in India, is believed to be twice as contagious as the original strain. The delta variant is now the dominant variant in the United States.
Studies have shown that a single shot of a two-dose vaccine provides weaker protection against the delta variant.
“There is more and more concerning evidence that is mounting around the world and in the United States about the activity of this delta variant,” said Clay Marsh, the state’s coronavirus response coordinator.
“This particular variant attacks people who aren’t vaccinated or people who are partially vaccinated.”
State figures show that 838,297 West Virginians — or 46.8 percent of the state’s population — are fully vaccinated.
The vaccination rate tends to go up among older state residents. The pace of vaccination has also gone down in recent weeks, despite an ongoing vaccination lottery effort with weekly drawings of million-dollar prizes, tricked-out trucks and more.
“How you can take a chance to not have this vaccine, I’ll never understand,” Justice said.
The federal government’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said more than nine out of 10 Americans who died from covid-19 in the United States in June were unvaccinated.
Justice said people have the freedom to choose what to do, but he strongly suggested opting for vaccination.
“That’s your choice, and I totally respect that,” he said.
“I don’t want to be here trying to talk anybody into getting a vaccine that they choose in life that they don’t want to do. All I’m trying to do is educate you.”