According to the Advocate newspaper, five members of Louisiana’s Congressional delegation say they have been vaccinated for the coronavirus. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise received his first dose of a two-dose vaccine last week. Scalise said he waited to get the vaccine because he tested for the immunities of COVID.
“Ultimately, even though those protections were there, I felt like [getting] the vaccine. I have confidence that it’s safe and effective and I thought it was the right thing to get it,” Scalise said.
Louisiana has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the countries and three members of the states’ Congressional delegation have not said if they are vaccinated, Garret Graves, Mike Johnson, and Clay Higgins, who confirmed this week he’s battling COVID. Scalise said doesn’t think the vaccine should be mandatory, but he recommends it.
“We’re seeing an increase in the number of people going back in the hospitals with Covid but over 95% of those in the hospital are unvaccinated,” Scalise said.
The Delta variant has resulted in a huge increase in cases and COVID hospitalizations and health officials are also tracking the Lambda variant which originated in Peru. Scalise said President Biden’s open border policy is helping this latest strain make its way into the United States.
“Somebody that isn’t even a legal citizen of America, you can come across the border illegally with Covid and that’s happening every single day right now that’s insanity,” Scalise said.
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