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After Facing Backlash from Granite Staters, Sununu Bowing to Pressure to Open Vaccine Appointments to All College Students
Concord, N.H. -- Governor Sununu is in damage control mode as he scrambles to fix yet another one of his COVID failures after facing backlash from health care professionals, educators, and elected leaders over his decision to make New Hampshire the only state in New England to not vaccinate all college students. After lying for weeks about why he refused to let all college students in New Hampshire register for the vaccine, Sununu announced today that everyone 16 years and older can register for the COVID vaccine in New Hampshire regardless of where they lived before coming to New Hampshire for college. Just two weeks ago, Sununu lied and said that the allocation of vaccines for New Hampshire from the federal government is based on population and does not include all college students. Sununu also doubled down on his false claim at the Manchester Chamber of Commerce State of the State last week and said, “The federal government gives us vaccine based on our residents. They don’t give me an allocation based on [...] out-of-state college students.” College students -- regardless of where their parents reside -- are counted as New Hampshire residents by the federal government. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, college students “should be counted where they live and sleep most of the time.” Officials at the U.S. Census Bureau also stated that “students living away from home should be counted at their on-campus or off-campus college address, even if coronavirus has temporarily sent them to stay with their parents.” The federal government allocates vaccine doses to states based on population data provided by the Census. Sununu also incorrectly claimed that “no state in New England right now is allowing out-of-state college students to get the vaccine.” Connecticut is already vaccinating all college students, Massachusetts has an explicit policy of vaccinating Massachusetts students originally from out of state, Maine students from out-of-state will be eligible for vaccines in Maine, Vermont announced it will open up vaccines to all college students, and Rhode Island announced it will vaccinate all students regardless of residency status. “Chris Sununu is scrambling desperately to fix yet another COVID failure after facing immense backlash from people across the state who rightfully called him out for his political stunt that risked health and safety of all Granite Staters just to placate his political base,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley. “Sununu can backtrack all he wants to, but no one will not forget that Sununu played political games with the COVID vaccine instead of working to ensure we could vaccinate as many people as possible to end this pandemic.”
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