WASHINGTON — A little more than half of Idaho's vaccine-eligible population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine; about 46% of those eligible are fully vaccinated. This week, at least one of Idaho's U.S. senators is urging Idahoans on the fence about the issue to go ahead and get the shot.
"Listen Idaho, get vaccinated. I understand you have the right to not get vaccinated. I appreciate that right; you certainly have that right," Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said Tuesday. "The science is there, the studies are there. People that say this was developed too quickly -- that argument may have been good when it was first released, but now the studies have gone on literally hundreds of millions of people. The safest track is to get vaccinated."
Sen. Risch touted the vaccine the same day the 14-day moving average of new daily COVID-19 cases in Idaho reached 473.5 -- more than double the average from two weeks earlier, and the highest since February 2.
"Get vaccinated! It will stop this COVID from progressing and get us back to normal," Risch continued. "We're going to go through some heartbreak just as we did last winter, when so many of our friends, neighbors, relatives caught it -- a lot of whom aren't with us anymore. Idaho, get vaccinated!"
Risch spoke with KTVB's Mark Johnson from Washington, DC, where he cast votes for a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and against a ten-year $3.5 trillion spending blueprint for family, health and environment programs. Both bills passed the Senate, but face uncertain fates in the House.
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