USA: Vaccine opponents secretly take covid-19 vaccine

Southern Missouri is one of the areas hardest hit by the latest wave of infections, with the delta variant of the coronavirus crippling the region. The highest concentration of infection in the United States is now found in three regions in the southern tip of the state.

Several hospitals in southern Missouri reported that patients were still coming in for vaccinations. But many ask to be allowed to do this anonymously, in order to avoid criticism from relatives and neighbors.

Some even dressed up or used fake names to avoid being identified, according to state hospitals.

“They want to escape the social pressures of the environment,” Priscilla Fries, a physician in Missouri, told CNN.

Hospitals try to be Understand when someone wants to be vaccinated anonymously. Among other things, they have a drive-through section where a vaccine can be obtained without having to leave the car.

“There are a lot of people who have come in and tried to change their appearance and said please, please, please, don’t tell anyone I’ve had the vaccine,” Fries told CNN.

Southern Missouri is a conservative area where vaccine resistance has long been strong. In many areas, vaccination rates are less than 20 percent, among the lowest numbers in the United States.

More than 80 percent of southern Missouri residents voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election. Earlier this year, Trump spread misleading myths about the side effects of vaccines. On the conservative television channel Fox News, the most famous presenters, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, spread false information about the dangers of vaccines.

According to Missouri Hospitals The vast majority of those admitted to the emergency department are not immunized, which follows a pattern across the United States. The areas most affected by the delta variant are also the areas with the least vaccination.

Read more: Fauci: The US is heading in the wrong direction

Florida, where vaccine resistance is also strong, had a fifth of all infections in the United States in mid-July, even though it has less than 9 percent of the country’s population. The state now has 34 of the 100,000 residents hospitalized after contracting the infection. New York has relatively five people for every 100,000 residents in the hospital.

There are many indications that the opposition is ideologically motivated. Survey Pew Research It recently showed that nearly half of American Republicans, 47 percent, say they have no vaccination plans at all. Only 8% of Democrats say the same thing.

During the CPAC’s large conservative conference in Texas earlier in July, the audience rejoiced when the speaker said the state’s vaccine numbers are particularly low.

Misinformation and myths If vaccine side effects are common. Chelsea Sacks, 25, in Arkansas, says Washington Post She avoided vaccination for a long time, because she had heard about false claims that it could lead to infertility. But with the number of infected increasing in her vicinity, she was vaccinated this week.

It is good to be skeptical, but ignorance is another matter. She says the only thing I regret is that I didn’t do it before.

in Huntington Beach, Southern California The Basilico restaurant has received attention for accepting only guests who have not been vaccinated. There is a large sign at the entrance stating that only those who can show “proof of unvaccinated” are allowed into the restaurant. “We have zero tolerance for traitors and anti-American stupidity,” the restaurant owner wrote on the sign.

Vaccine resistance, especially in conservative areas, explains why the United States lags globally in terms of the proportion of people vaccinated. Once the world’s fastest vaccinated during the winter and spring, the European Union has now overtaken the United States this week, with a higher proportion of the population fully vaccinated.

Now, however, the number Vaccination has begun to increase in the most crisis-hit countries. In Louisiana, there has been a 114 percent increase in the daily vaccination rate in recent days compared to last month, according to the CDC. In Missouri, there was an increase of 49 percent, in Alabama of 65 percent and in Texas of 25 percent.

In Massachusetts, which already has a high rate of vaccines, a large proportion are still infected, but the proportion being hospitalized or seriously ill is much lower than in states that are less vaccinated.

Read more: Two out of ten infected people are not protected from infection by the delta variant