Almost two years into the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, several states are still struggling to immunize their residents.
1:31Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILErollout, several states are still struggling to immunize their residents.
"What has happened is [people in] the states where they refused to get the vaccine, or were hesitant to get the vaccine, got infected," Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News. "What we are seeing is due to waning immunity, we are going to enter winter with a higher percentage of people who are susceptible.
Five of those states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee -- are among the top 10 states with the highestExperts say the evidence is overwhelming that lower vaccination rates lead to a higher number of cases, but it's more than just looking at the statewide data.In Cameron Parish, Louisiana -- which borders Texas and the Gulf of Mexico -- only 18.
"The kind of reluctance to get vaccinated often moves hand-in-hand with a reluctance to maybe observe other protective measures, masking crowded indoorded settings and so on," she said.There are some low vaccination states that aren't experiencing highOnly one of the bottom 10 vaccination states, Georgia, is among the 10 states with the highest death rates at 1 per 100,000 as of Sept. 8.
In Wyoming, for example, which has among the lowest death rates but also the lowest vaccination rate, 75.9% of seniors aged 65 and older are fully vaccinated as of Sept. 5, according to the state. Comparatively, just 55.5% of adults aged 18-64 are fully vaccinated and 34.5% of adolescents aged 12-17.
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