McMaster spars with White House over door-to-door COVID vaccine push
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s criticism of the Biden Administration’s call for door-to-door COVID-19 vaccine outreach garnered national attention Friday after the president’s press secretary took the governor to task for his coronavirus response.
When asked about McMaster’s statement that knocking on doors to promote vaccinations, as President Joe Biden has encouraged, was a bad policy that would “degrade the public’s confidence” in South Carolina’s vaccination efforts, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded that the lack of accurate public health information about vaccines was “literally killing people.”
“The failure to provide accurate public health information, including the efficacy of vaccines and the accessibility of them to people across the country, including South Carolina, is literally killing people,” Psaki said. “So maybe they should consider that.”
She called attempts to paint the White House’s community vaccination outreach plans as federal coercion “a disservice to the country” and to future lives lost to COVID-19, and said government employees would not be going door-to-door.
“This is grassroots volunteers, this is members of the clergy, these are volunteers who believe that people across the country, especially in low vaccinated areas, should have accurate information, should have information about where they can get vaccinated, where they can save their own lives and their neighbors’ lives and their family members’ lives,” Psaki said.
After video of her comments took off on social media, McMaster took to Twitter to settle the score.
“Unfortunately, @PressSec,” he tweeted, “we have seen that public health information and recommendations coming from Dr. (Anthony) Fauci and this administration are a lot like the weather in South Carolina. Wait a bit and it will change completely.”
State health officials also took offense at Psaki’s comments, saying they were “disappointed” with her characterization of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s COVID-19 vaccination messaging.
“DHEC prides itself on providing accurate information about the COVID-19 virus — and the vaccines that work against the virus — to all South Carolinians,” spokesman Derrek Asberry said in a statement. “The agency and its partners have a large array of vaccination clinics and other efforts statewide to ensure that anyone who wants to be vaccinated can do so as effortlessly as possible.”
Asberry said over 3,000 DHEC staff members had worked more than 100,000 hours of overtime during the pandemic and that before impugning their efforts Psaki should take the time to review the agency’s website or visit South Carolina and spend a day with staff to see their work firsthand.
The spat between South Carolina and the White House comes amid Republican pushback against Biden’s door-to-door vaccination initiative, which has prompted governors in some red states to direct state health officials to prohibit promotion of COVID-19 shots through unsolicited door knocking.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday he doesn’t want government employees going door-to-door in his state to urge people to get vaccinated, even as a COVID-19 outbreak overwhelms some hospitals in the southern part of the state.
McMaster on Friday directed South Carolina health officials to outlaw the practice, saying the decision to get vaccinated is a personal one and not the government’s choice.
“Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts,” he wrote in a letter to the chairman of the state’s health agency.
DHEC Director Ed Simmer said Friday his agency had not and would not conduct unsolicited door knocking as part of its vaccination outreach efforts, but encouraged South Carolinians to roll up their sleeves.
“It’s critical for those who are not fully vaccinated to understand they are putting themselves and their loved ones at risk for being vulnerable to illness, hospitalization and even death from COVID-19,” Simmer said in a statement. “The vaccine is our best hope for ending the pandemic once and for all.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 4:16 PM.