WV Gov. says God's guidance, common sense helped put state on top in vaccine rollout
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said in a recent interview that the state has managed to administer COVID-19 vaccines to more people per capita than almost any other state, thanks to God’s guidance and “good sound thinking.”
“It’s just simply good sound thinking and having the guts to move and get it done,” Gov. Justice told CBN News in an interview that aired last Thursday.
Since March 25, which Justice proclaimed as a statewide day of prayer, God has “surely guided the boat since that day.”
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“I can promise you that,” the Republican governor added.
On the day of prayer, the governor urged people to pray for God’s mercy and intervention.
“But Father, I pray for all of us in our great state that You will intervene now and hear our words as I know You will, and some way, somehow intervene to stop this terrible virus,” the 69-year-old Justice prayed at the time.
Justice pointed out that the state chose not to go with a federal plan to send the vaccine to big pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens.
“We recruited our local pharmacies, our local health clinics. We absolutely put our National Guard right to work. We took this to the people because the people are used to going to certain places and everything,” he said. “And with all that, we started putting shots in people's arms, and that's why we've led the way.”
During Friday’s briefing, Justice said he and other state pandemic response leaders are “pushing as hard as we can.” He urged the federal government to supply more doses of the vaccines.
“We’re going through every channel we can go through,” he said. “One thing that I cannot get straight in my head is you have states all across this country that have hundreds of thousands or millions of vaccines that are not in somebody’s arm; they’re in a warehouse. Hours mean something — not days, weeks, or months — hours mean something to try to save somebody’s life.”
According to the latest numbers posted to the CDC’s National Vaccination Tracker, out of the over 59 million vaccine doses delivered to states across the country, only 39 million had been administered as of Sunday afternoon.
On Friday, the state reported that West Virginia has successfully administered 294,059 of the 328,600 total doses that have been delivered in the state, an overall administration rate of 89.4 percent.
More than 124,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in West Virginia, while 2,129 people have died due to COVID-19 as of Sunday. There were over 16,000 active cases of COVID-19 as of early Sunday.
Last month, Gov. Justice said on “Face the Nation” that his state was at “98.1 percent, as far as vaccines in people’s arms or names tied to it that are going to be put into people’s arms immediately.”
“We’re saving all kinds of lives,” the governor proclaimed. “We’re putting our kids back in school. West Virginia has been the diamond in the rough that a lot of people have missed.”
