South Carolina governor rebuffs door-to-door vaccine help proposal

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday that he doesn’t want the federal government sending people door-to-door to convince residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19, joining a growing number of Republican state politicians opposing the strategy.

McMaster sent a letter to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s board asking the department to ban state and local health care groups from “the use of the Biden Administration’s ‘targeted’ ‘door to door’ tactics.”

“A South Carolinian’s decision to get vaccinated is a personal one for them to make and not the government’s,” McMaster wrote. “Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts.”

About 43% of South Carolinians are vaccinated, placing the state in the bottom half of states ranked by vaccination rate.

State leaders in Arizona and Missouri also have pushed back against the federal strategy after President Joe Biden said earlier this week: “Now, we need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, and oftentimes, door-to-door — literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus.”

Federal officials this week defended the door-to-door efforts, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki noting Thursday that the vaccine canvassing is done entirely by volunteers and the White House believes it’s helped boost vaccine rates in a number of states, including Alabama, Florida and Georgia. She emphasized that the federal government doesn’t keep a database of who’s been vaccinated.

Jeffrey Zeints, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, also said Thursday that “local trusted messengers” like doctors, faith leaders and community leaders are the best people to promote vaccinations and may go door to door.

“So I would say for those individuals, organizations that are feeding misinformation and trying to mischaracterize this type of trusted messenger work, I believe you are doing a disservice to the country and to the doctors, the faith leaders, the community leaders and others who are working to get people vaccinated, to save lives and help to end this pandemic,” Zeints said.

McMaster’s letter comes a day after state public health officials warned that the overwhelming majority of South Carolinians now being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 are those who aren’t fully vaccinated.

An analysis of newly reported data in the first two weeks of June by the state health agency found 94% of new cases were in not fully vaccinated individuals. Of cases where the agency could determine vaccine status, most of the 92 people hospitalized and all of the 11 who died of COVID-19 during those two weeks weren’t completely vaccinated.

“If they want to go door to door and offer it, you know, if people don’t want to talk, they will tell them no,” said South Carolina resident Iris Ayers, who is vaccinated.

“Even though they have the right to say no, I think some people feel like the government is telling them what to do. I don’t think they are, I just think they are trying to help,” said local resident Karen Privette, who is vaccinated.

McMaster’s approach drew heavy criticism from the White House who accused him of putting politics ahead of public health.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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