Meanwhile, Louisiana has been struggling with an unprecedented spike of Covid-19 cases due to the highly contagious Delta variant. A record of 2,907 people were hospitalized on Friday and hospitals are reaching full capacity, which Scalise pointed to as his biggest concern.
According to the Louisiana Health Department, 91 percent of hospitalized patients aren’t vaccinated.
Scalise said the best approach for these people is to educate them about the safety of the vaccine and warned that shame tactics will do little to curb their hesitancy.
“I have high confidence in this vaccination,” he said. “It’s safe and effective. And I think we ought to be encouraging more people to do it. But again, not shaming people who haven’t. We gotta be getting them information, encouraging people to go talk to their doctors because there is real hesitancy out there.”
“We ought to be confronting that, not trying to divide people based on who is vaccinated and who is unvaccinated,” he added.