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Already Last in New England, New Hampshire’s Vaccination Campaign Is Falling Further and Further Behind
CONCORD -- Chris Sununu has bragged that New Hampshire’s vaccination rate is in the top ten in the country, but according to the New York Times and CDC, New Hampshire has fallen to 14th in the number of residents who have received at least one shot and 11th in the country for those fully vaccinated. “The Sununu administration’s vaccination campaign isn’t working and it’s alarming to watch our state fall further and further behind as the Delta variant surges,” said NHDP Chair Ray Buckley. “New Hampshire needs a plan to increase vaccinations now, and it’s clear Sununu doesn’t have one.” As recently as August 13, Sununu said on NH Today with Chris Ryan that, “we're a top 10 state. Yeah, look, we're a top 10 state in vaccination,” but that standing quickly plummeted. On August 10, New Hampshire ranked 12th in the nation for first doses of the vaccine and 8th for fully vaccinated. In just a few weeks, the rankings continued to drop. Additionally, New Hampshire hospitals are facing increasingly difficult conditions — both Memorial Hospital in Conway and Dartmouth-Hitchcock have announced that they are once again taking emergency measures because of the surge in COVID cases. Yet, as WMUR reported, Sununu believes that “the state government’s role in this pandemic is over.” For months, Sununu has faced questions about what he is doing to get more Granite Staters vaccinated. Sununu chose to spend much of the state’s funds on a massive taxpayer-funded ad campaign starring himself — even though research shows ads starring politicians are ineffective at actually convincing people to get vaccinated. Sununu’s administration recently refused to commit to not including him or other politicians in a new round of taxpayer-funded PSA ads. Sununu also faced scrutiny after a report from NHPR exposed that he knowingly touted false COVID vaccination numbers in an effort to raise his national profile ahead of a potential run for US Senate, and Sununu’s administration is refusing to protect the lives of Granite State veterans and avoid another deadly outbreak at the New Hampshire Veterans Home by not requiring nursing home staff to be vaccinated.
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