'You Are The Ones Threatening The Freedoms Of All The Rest Of Us' Hogan Calls Out Unvaccinated Residents
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Governor Larry Hogan is calling out the people who have chosen not to get vaccinated. He said they're the ones who are putting others at risk.
"You are the ones threatening the freedoms of all the rest of us, the freedom not to wear masks, to keep our businesses open and to get our kids back in school," said Gov. Hogan. "I don't care what misinformation or conspiracy theories you've heard, the plain and simple fact is that these vaccines are working."
More than 3.5 million Marylanders are now fully vaccinated. The state has one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation but about 20 percent of adults haven't started the process yet.
WJZ spoke with people in Baltimore who are still hesitant to take the vaccine.
"I've been hearing the stories not so much on social media but even on regular news about people getting the virus even though they already got the shot," said Adam McCullough of Baltimore. "Plus you got the new one out the Delta [variant] and what's the sense of getting one when you got other viruses coming?"
Another man in West Baltimore recently received his first shot. The man told WJZ he initially didn't trust the vaccine.
"I just didn't feel as though the vaccine was out long enough for me to be able to make an assessment of how it would affect other humans but as I already stated all my family has been vaccinated for months. They seem to be cool and fine about it, so therefore I was pretty much convicted in a sense to do the same," said the man who didn't want to be identified.
The push to get people vaccinated is now moving out into the communities. The health department has teamed up with hospital systems like LifeBridge Health to bring mobile or pop-up clinics to communities.
Tiombe Mitchell is a nurse with LifeBridge Health.
"Most of the stories are either I was sick or I know someone who was close to me who was sick and if we had known earlier we would've gotten vaccinated and you don't want to get to that point where you're sick, it's too late," said Mitchell.
She is part of a team that administered vaccines at Fayette Street Outreach in West Baltimore. The team visits the location twice per month