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Promote vaccines or oppose Biden’s vaccination efforts? SC governor can’t have it both ways

Imagine a day when only bank robbers and healthcare workers wear masks. Imagine a day when hand sanitizer is no longer more valuable than gold (or bitcoin, whatever).

That day is possible, but we have to get through, out of, away from, well beyond, etc. the COVID-19 pandemic.

How do we do that? You know what I’m going to say.

Get a vaccine.

Last week, a reporter asked Alabama Gov .Kay Ivey, “What is it going to take to get people to get shots in arms?’”

Her response, “I don’t know. You tell me. Folks supposed to have common sense.”

Ivey, who in May signed a law prohibiting vaccine passports, continued, “But It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”

Here in South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster, like Ivey, has been vaccinated and this week he too was busy promoting vaccinations.

“We made our decision,” McMaster told our reporter of his decision to be vaccinated. “I think it was the right decision to do, but people, if they have questions they can get answers and they need to talk to the people they trust. Whether it’s a preacher, a doctor, neighbors or friends, and make a decision. We made what I think is the right decision.”

The Governor, who did recently oppose efforts to send volunteers door-to-door to share information about vaccinations, added, “We know that the vaccine saves lives. We’ve seen that. We see it in the numbers of people going into the hospital I think is close to 99% are not vaccinated. So that means that the vaccine is working.”

McMaster, like Ivey, has been trying to have it both ways - toeing the company line of anti-Biden administration vaccine efforts and, in Alabama’s case, Ivey signing a vaccine passport ban. All of which fed the anti-vax sentiment we are dealing with today. Now, Alabama is paying the price, and McMaster sees the writing on the wall in South Carolina.

At this point, it feels like he and Ivey are preaching to the choir, but they and other leaders in our communities have to keep trying if we want this pandemic to end.

As of now, just 44 percent of South Carolinians are fully vaccinated and 50 percent have at least one dose of the vaccine.

Sure, we hear stories of those moved to get vaccinated when a friend or family member becomes ill or dies from COVID-19, but it shouldn’t take someone’s pain, suffering or even death to make what seems, to Ivey, McMaster and me, an obvious choice.

Get the shot.