LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK CRITICIZED AFTER BLAMING COVID-19 SURGE ON UNVACCINATED BLACK PEOPLE

  

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is being criticized after blaming unvaccinated Black people and Democrats as the reason for rising COVID-19 case numbers.

Patrick was asked during an interview on Fox News Thursday night about how Texas is handling the increasing cases.  He responded that “most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated and the Democrats like to blame the Republicans on that.  Well, the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated.”

Patrick went on to say, “The last time I checked, over 90 percent of them vote for Democrats in the major cities and major counties,” before saying it is up to Democrats and Republicans to get people vaccinated.  He said Democrats are “doing nothing for the African American community that has a significant high number of unvaccinated people,” and reiterated the stance of Republicans that residents have the “individual right” to receive the vaccine.

Patrick’s comments were met with immediate backlash, with Senator Borris Miles, a Black Democrat from Houston, saying “for the second time in the past month, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has made prejudiced, inflammatory statements about African Americans and that is unacceptable.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Patrick’s statements “are offensive and should not be ignored.”

According to the Texas Tribune, the full vaccination rate among Black Texans is 29 percent, lower than the rates for Asian, Hispanic and white Texans.

However, the biggest group of unvaccinated people using raw numbers is white people: an estimated 5.6 million white people are eligible and unvaccinated, while that number is 1.9 million for Black people.  An estimated 4.9 million Hispanic people are unvaccinated.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Patrick responded to the criticism, saying “Democrat social media trolls were up late misstating the facts and fanning the flames of their lies.”