Austin AP (WBAP/KLIF) – The Texas lieutenant governor is under fire for recent comments blaming rising hospitalization and death rates from covid-19 in Texas on unvaccinated black people — a statement that was quickly denounced as racist.
Dan Patrick made the remarks Thursday night on a Fox news segment about the latest surge.
During an interview Thursday night on Fox News, Patrick was asked about the state of the pandemic in Texas, and he noted the virus is spreading mostly among the unvaccinated.
In most states, he said, African Americans are the “biggest group” who are unvaccinated, and they are reliable Democratic voters. In Texas, the vaccination rate among Black people is low compared with other racial and ethnic groups, but in terms of raw numbers, the biggest group of the unvaccinated is white people.
“It’s up to the Democrats, just as it’s up to the Republicans, to try to get as many people vaccinated, but we respect the fact that if people don’t want the vaccination, we’re not gonna force it on them,” Patrick said. “That’s their individual right. But in terms of criticizing the Republicans for this, we’re encouraging people to take it, but they’re doing nothing for the African American community that has a significant high number of unvaccinated people, so they need to address that.”
Patrick later said that he used state data in his assertions; yet state data suggests that the COVID surge in the Lone Star State is driven by whites and Hispanics who make up the bulk of the state’s cases. The Houston Chronicle responded with an article fact-checking his claims:
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) August 20, 2021
Stats show that unvaccinated white Texans outnumber unvaccinated black Texans by a roughly three-to-one margin.
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