{"id":66319,"date":"2021-05-23T15:39:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T19:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=66319"},"modified":"2021-05-23T15:39:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T19:39:37","slug":"im-not-getting-vaccinated-u-s-senator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=66319","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m not getting vaccinated’ — U.S. Senator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rand Paul: ‘I’m not getting vaccinated’<\/strong><\/h1>\n

BY JORDAN WILLIAM
\nThe Hill<\/p>\n

Sen.\u00a0Rand Paul<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Ky.) said Sunday that he will not be getting vaccinated against COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

During an interview with\u00a0John Catsimatidis<\/a>\u00a0on his radio show on WABC 770 AM, Paul, an ophthalmologist, said he\u2019s making the personal decision because he\u2019s already had COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul tested positive for COVID-19\u00a0in March 2020<\/span><\/a>. At the time, he was the first known senator to have contracted the disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)\u00a0recommends that<\/a>\u00a0those\u00a0who have recovered from COVID-19 get vaccinated because experts are unsure about how long natural immunity lasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0Kentucky senator\u00a0told Catsimatidis that until he sees evidence suggesting that immunity from the vaccine is better than natural immunity, he\u2019s not going to get vaccinated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cU<\/span>ntil they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I\u2019m not getting vaccinated because I\u2019ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity,\u201d Paul said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The comments come as the U.S. seeks to push through a decline in demand following the mad dash for the jab earlier in the year. Data from the CDC shows that 60.8 percent of adults have received at least one vaccine and that 48.8 percent have been fully inoculated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader\u00a0Mitch McConnell<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Ky.), have urged Americans to get vaccinated. Paul’s Kentucky colleague tweeted about his vaccination directly following his jab earlier in the year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, recent polling has shown that Republicans are more hesitant to get vaccinated than Democrats and independents.<\/p>\n

One poll from\u00a0PBS NewsHour\/NPR\/ Marist<\/span><\/a>\u00a0found that 41 percent of Republicans say they do not plan\u00a0to get vaccinated, compared\u00a0with 4 percent of Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paul has been critical of coronavirus restrictions and mask mandates, often sparring with the nation’s top infectious diseases expert,\u00a0Anthony Fauci<\/a><\/span>, during Senate panel hearings on the coronavirus response.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said Sunday that getting vaccinated should be a personal choice and that no one should be forced to get vaccinated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>In a free country, you would think people would honor the idea that each individual would get to make the medical decision, that it wouldn\u2019t be a big brother coming to tell me what I have to do,\u201d Paul said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAre they also going to tell me I can\u2019t have a cheeseburger for lunch? Are they going to tell me that I have to eat carrots only and cut my calories?\u201d Paul continued. \u201cAll that would probably be good for me, but I don\u2019t think big brother ought to tell me to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Catsimatidis is an investor in The Hill.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/sunday-talk-shows\/554918-rand-paul-im-not-getting-vaccinated<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rand Paul: ‘I’m not getting vaccinated’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}