During an appearance on Fox News Thursday night, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) was asked his thoughts on the surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, and Patrick pointed the finger at Black Americans.
From The Hill:
Fox News’s Laura Ingraham asked Patrick during her prime-time show to share his thoughts on criticism from Democrats on his state’s handling of increased infection rates, noting Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) ban of mask mandates in schools.
“Democrats like to blame Republicans on that,” Patrick responded. “Well, the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated. The last time I checked, over 90 percent of them vote for Democrats in their major cities and major counties.”
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blames unvaccinated Black people for Covid spread in his state pic.twitter.com/CfwajqECLM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2021
In a Facebook post, Patrick defended his remarks saying, “Federal and State data clearly indicate that Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than White or Hispanic rates.”
While vaccination rates among Black Texans is relatively low, according to state data, the highest rates of coronavirus infections in the state have been reported among white (35%) and Hispanic people (35.8%). Black Texans only make up 14.8 % of cases.
According to the CDC, just under 46 percent of Texans are fully vaccinated versus 51 percent of all eligible Americans.
100 percent of African Americans in Texas = 11 percent of Texas’ population. So they can’t possibly account for the 55 percent of Texans that are unvaxxed.
— Roger Vaccinated Sullivan (@RogerSullivanNO) August 20, 2021
*checks to see what areas of Texas have the highest vaccination rates and how they voted… pic.twitter.com/Y9V3XucCIG
— Radomski (@MJR_202) August 20, 2021