阿肯色州州长阿萨·哈钦森(Asa Hutchinson)周日表示，他和他的政府正在“努力”克服疫苗犹豫不决的问题，并将接受联邦政府的帮助，因为在全州疫苗接种率停滞不前的情况下，三角洲变异病例在他所在的州激增。
由于只有35%的居民完全接种了疫苗，阿肯色州的一些疫苗接种率是全国最低的。哈钦森说，他的政府的努力将主要针对30-54岁的人口，因为这个群体的疫苗接种率低，住院率高。
哈钦森告诉美国广播公司《本周》主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯:“我们正在非常努力地通过雇主、通过值得信赖的顾问(如诊所)接触这些人群，确保他们掌握信息，克服(疫苗)犹豫不决或只是简单地‘我们推迟’的做法。
他后来在采访中补充说:“我们只需要像历史上一样回答这个问题，你要用真理来克服怀疑和不信任。“你克服了阻力和固执，说这对我们的社区很重要，对我们的国家和民族的健康也很重要。”
阿肯色州州长哈钦森在谈到联邦政府对疫苗推广的帮助时说@ GStephanopoulos:“我们希望得到所有力所能及的帮助。”“我们想让我们的教堂参与进来，我们想让我们的社区、组织参与进来。”https://t.co/SOM3h1D1hnpic.twitter.com/k4SlwQ7gOH
—本周(@本周ABC)2021年7月11日
顶端健康据美国疾病控制和预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)的数据，官员们几周来一直警告说，未接种疫苗的人感染这种病毒delta变种的风险很高，这种病毒目前在美国占主导地位，比病毒的原始形式更容易传播。
密苏里州和邻近的阿肯色州领导国家人均每周病例率最高，相当于每10万居民中有100多例。在同样的两周时间里，新新冠肺炎医院的接诊人数也增长了30%，一线工作人员表示，患者病情恶化的速度越来越快。
当斯特凡诺普洛斯被问及阿肯色州将如何克服疫苗的政治化时，哈钦森表示，他将努力消除选民对政府的“怀疑和不信任”。
“首先，不应该有党派之分，但显然保守派对政府权威更犹豫。这只是它的本质，所以我认为在南部各州和一些农村州，你有那种更保守的方法，对政府的怀疑，”哈钦森说。
他补充说:“我们必须克服这种不信任，因为共和党人、民主党人，我们都承受着同样的后果:如果我们不接种疫苗，德尔塔变种就会感染我们。
斯特凡诺普洛斯还问哈钦森，他所在的州是否会与联邦政府合作，帮助在民众中推广疫苗接种，他提到了乔·拜登总统最近的一次讲话。
拜登周二表示:“我们需要一个社区一个社区地去，一个社区一个社区地去，经常是挨家挨户地去，真的是敲门，去帮助剩下的免受病毒感染的人。
哈钦森周日表示，他将对联邦支持持开放态度，与其他共和党州长不同，这些州长一直抵制联邦对冠状病毒救济的援助，并在很大程度上批评拜登周二的讲话，尽管白宫保证敲门的是当地志愿者，而不是联邦政府。
“为了实现增加疫苗接种的共同目标，我们希望得到一切力所能及的帮助。早在拜登总统说这些之前，我们就有社区组织在帮助我们，我们有教堂走进家庭，我们有人们走进卧床不起的人，这样他们就可以获得疫苗，”哈钦森说。
他补充说:“没有人希望特工敲门，但我们确实希望那些没有其他途径的人确保他们知道并掌握信息。“我们希望让我们的教堂参与进来。我们希望有我们社区的组织。如果这意味着挨家挨户去社区，让他们知道，那没关系。”
斯特凡诺普洛斯指出，新冠肺炎病例越来越多，他向哈钦森施压，询问他是否会违背本月晚些时候将在该州生效的当地口罩禁令。
“我认为，如果我们开始要求接种疫苗的人戴口罩，尤其是在任何地方——室内或室外，那将会抑制接种疫苗的积极性。我们希望人们得到回报，并说，你的生活会更正常，你会受到更多的保护。告诉接种过疫苗的人，戴口罩是错误的程序。让人们接种疫苗不会有什么帮助，”哈钦森回答说。
哈钦森还表示，在即将到来的学年，他不会强制要求在学校戴口罩。
“我们不会在学校里戴口罩。我们去年在教室里上课，今年会更好。现在，12岁以上的人可以接种疫苗，所以解决方案很明显在学校是安全的:接种疫苗，”他说。
哈钦森补充说:“现在那些12岁及以下的孩子没有同样的机会，所以即使风险较小，你也必须更加小心，这是父母保护这些孩子的一种激励，通过提高周围每个人的疫苗接种率，确保他们在家里和社区有一个安全的环境。”。
Arkansas governor 'working hard' to overcome vaccine hesitancy amid COVID-19 surge
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that he and his administration are "working hard" to overcome vaccine hesitancy and would accept the federal government's help as delta-variant cases surge across his state amid plateauing statewide vaccination rates.
With only 35% of residents fully vaccinated, Arkansas has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Hutchinson said his administration's efforts will largely target the 30-54 age demographic, as this group has both low-vaccination and high-hospitalization rates.
"We're working very hard to go to that population through the employer, through trusted advisers, such as the clinics, making sure they have the information and overcoming the (vaccine) hesitancy or just the simply 'we're-putting-it-off' approach," Hutchinson told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos.
"We just have to answer it just like we have all through history, that you overcome skepticism and mistrust by truth," he added later in the interview. "You overcome resistance and obstinance with saying it's important for our community, and it's important for the health of our state and nation."
On federal help for vaccine outreach, Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson tells@GStephanopoulos: "We want all the help we can.""We want to have our churches involved, we want to have our communities, organizations."https://t.co/SOM3h1D1hnpic.twitter.com/k4SlwQ7gOH
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC)July 11, 2021
Tophealthofficials have been warning for weeks that unvaccinated people have a high risk of contracting the delta variant of the virus, which is now dominant in the U.S. and is more transmissible than the original form of the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Missouri and neighboring Arkansaslead the nationwith the highest weekly case rates per capita, which translates into more than 100 per 100,000 residents. New COVID-19 hospital admissions also rose 30% over the same two-week span, and front-line workers have said patients are becoming sicker more quickly.
When Stephanopoulos asked how Arkansas would overcome the politicization of vaccines, Hutchinson said he would work to dispel the "skepticism and mistrust" of government among his constituents.
"There shouldn't be a partisan divide, first of all, but clearly a conservative is more hesitant about government authority. That's just the nature of it, and so I think in southern states and some rural states, you have that more conservative approach, skepticism about government," Hutchinson said.
"We've got to overcome that mistrust because Republicans, Democrats, we all suffer the same consequences: the Delta variant gets us if we're not vaccinated," he added.
Stephanopoulos also asked Hutchinson if his state would cooperate with the federal government in helping to promote vaccinations among the population, referencing a recent speech by President Joe Biden.
"We need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood and oft-times door-to-door, literally knocking on doors, to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus," Biden said Tuesday.
Hutchinson said Sunday that he would be open to federal support, departing from other GOP governors who have been resistant to federal assistance with coronavirus relief and largely critical of Biden's Tuesday remarks, despite White House assurances it is local volunteers -- not the federal government -- who will be knocking on doors.
"We want all the help we can in order to accomplish a mutual goal in increasing vaccinations. Long before President Biden said that, we have community organizations that's helping us, we have churches that are going into homes, we have people that go into those that are bedridden, so that they can have access to the vaccine," Hutchinson said.
"No one wants an agent knocking on a door, but we do want those that do not have access otherwise to make sure they know about and have the information," he added. "We want to have our churches involved. We want to have our community's organizations. If it means going into a community door-by-door and letting them know, then that's okay."
Pointing to the growing number of COVID-19 cases, Stephanopoulos pressed Hutchinson on whether he would renege on the local mask mandate ban that was set to go into effect in the state later this month.
"I think if we started requiring mask-wearing of those vaccinated, particularly -- well anywhere -- indoors or outdoors, that is a disincentive to get vaccinated. We want people to be rewarded and say, your life's going to be more normal, you're going to be more protected. To tell people who've been vaccinated, you got to wear a mask is the wrong program. It's not going to be helpful to get people to be vaccinated," Hutchinson replied.
Hutchinson also said that he would not mandate mask wearing in schools during the upcoming school year.
"We're not going to have masks in the schools. We had in-classroom school last year, we're going to have it even better this year. Right now, 12-plus can be vaccinated and so the solutions are clear to be safe in the schools: get vaccinated," he said.
"Now those that are 12 and under that don't have that same access, and so you've got to even be more careful even though the risks are less, that's an incentive for parents to protect those children to make sure they have a safe environment, in their home, in their community by increasing the vaccination rate for everybody around them," Hutchinson added.
