The Tucker and the Hare

West Virginia, owing to its relatively old population and independent pharmacy network, was an early vaccination success story. Then the wingnut industrial complex took over:

West Virginia has one of the fastest rates of new Covid-19 cases in the nation, a surge some state health officials say is at least in part due to the state’s low vaccination rate.

At 46%, West Virginia has the lowest percentage of its eligible population fully vaccinated of any state, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The low percentage is striking. The state was initially considered a vaccine-rollout success story. In February, it had vaccinated a higher percentage of its population than any other state.

Early on, the state excelled at vaccinating people in nursing homes and others who were eager to get the shot, but then it ran into a roadblock of hesitant people, state officials say. It has joined other states with high numbers of hospitalized Covid-19 patients.

As of Thursday, West Virginia had 109 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people on average over the past seven days, the highest rate of new daily cases in the nation, followed closely by Tennessee, according to data compiled by The Wall Street Journal.

Republican propaganda efforts aimed at making as many Republican voters sick or dead as possible have been smashingly effective.