North Carolina U.S. Senator Thom Tillis has made his share of unhelpful comments over the past 18 or so months when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, but yesterday to his credit, the senator — who himself contracted the virus last year and has announced recently that he was dealing with prostate cancer — issued a fine and important statement that one hopes conservative vaccine skeptics around the state will heed.
We’re happy to republish it here in its entirety.
Friends,
As you know, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is more contagious than earlier strains, and it’s important to make sure we all take care of ourselves and others.
While the new CDC mask guidance has caused some unnecessary confusion about the effectiveness of the vaccine, the reality is that vaccines have proven to be highly successful in protecting Americans from COVID-19, including the Delta variant. The scientific data has shown that 94% of North Carolina cases and 97% of all U.S. hospitalizations are occurring among the unvaccinated population.
The more than 164 million fully vaccinated Americans are at very low risk of a breakthrough infection and are at incredibly low risk of serious complications. For fully vaccinated Americans, less than 0.004% have been hospitalized and less than 0.001% have died from a breakthrough case.
If you have any questions or concerns, please talk with your doctor about the vaccine, if you have not already. It is safe and effective, and our best tool at beating this virus.
To find your nearest vaccine provider, visit the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ vaccine location portal.
Thank you for reading, and as always, please reach out to my office if you have any questions or need help with a federal agency. God bless.
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