West Virginia: First to worst in COVID-19 vaccine efforts

KENOVA, W.Va. (AP) — When COVID-19 vaccines first became available, Ric Griffith’s family-owned drugstore was among 250 mom-and-pop pharmacies that helped West Virginia get off to the fastest start of any state in vaccinating its residents.

Republican Gov. Jim Justice went on national news shows to declare West Virginia — a place that regularly ranks near the bottom in many health indicators — “the diamond in the rough.”

Nine months later, those days are a distant memory. Demand for the vaccine has almost dried up, the question of whether to get a shot has become a political hot button, and West Virginia’s vaccination rate has plummeted to the lowest among the states.

The governor, who spent months preaching the virtues of the vaccine to reluctant West Virginians, is still doing that but is also promoting a new law that would allow some exemptions to employer-imposed vaccination requirements.

And those shots? They’re mostly sitting on shelves.

“I’m afraid that while taking a victory lap, we discovered that there were more laps to go in the race,” Griffith, who is also a Democratic member of the state House of Delegates, said Monday of West Virginia's descent from first to worst. The druggist has since turned his attention to preparing 3,000 pumpkins for a big Halloween event that was waylaid by the pandemic last year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41% of West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 49% have had at least one dose. The state's rate of about 89,000 doses administered per 100,000 population is the nation’s worst. Nationally, 57.5% of the population is fully vaccinated and 66.5% has gotten at least one dose.

In West Virginia, it wasn't for lack of trying. For months, Justice offered an...