'Racist and Flat Out Wrong': Texas Republican Blames Black Americans For Covid Surge
- Dan Patrick refuses to apologise for false claim while Texas experiences highest hospitalisation rates since January. The Guardian, Aug. 21, 2021.
Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, has refused to apologise for blaming rising Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths on unvaccinated African Americans, comments one Black Houston official called “racist and flat out wrong.” Doubling down on his remarks to Fox News, Patrick blamed “Democrat social media trolls” and said “Democrats continue to play politics with people’s lives”. Sylvester Turner, the Democratic mayor of Houston, who is African American, said Patrick’s comments were “offensive and should not be ignored”.
Amid widespread concern over the spread of the Delta variant, Texas is
experiencing its highest hospitalisation rates since January. It emerged this week that the state had asked federal authorities for more mortuary trucks. The overwhelming majority of Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths in the US are among those who have not received a vaccine.
Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday night, Patrick said: “The biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated. “The last time I checked over 90% of them vote for Democrats in their major cities and major counties, so it’s up to the Democrats – just as it’s up to the Republicans – to try to get as many people vaccinated.” In his statement on Friday, Patrick said federal and state data “clearly indicate that Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than White or Hispanic rates”.
But statistics from the Texas health department did not back him up. Black Texans, about 12% of more than 29 million people in the state, have accounted for about 15% of total Covid-19 cases and just more than 10% of deaths. About 8% of the eligible population in Texas that has been vaccinated is Black, according to state data, compared with 35% of the white population. But white people make up the largest racial group in Texas at about 40%. Overall, 44% of Texans are fully vaccinated, less than the national rate of about 50%...
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/21/dan-patrick-texas-republican-black-americans-covid-fox-news
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