Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, says it's 'time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks'

• With her state having one of the lowest vaccination rates, Alabama's governor is speaking out.
• Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, said blame belonged with her state's unvaccinated population.
• "It's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks," she said.

Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama, who for much of the coronavirus pandemic resisted public-health measures, criticized her state's unvaccinated population in comments Thursday.

Ivey, a Republican who once feuded with her own lieutenant governor over what he warned was a weak coronavirus response, told reporters on Thursday that she had "done all that I know how to do."

"I don't know, you tell me," she said when asked what it would take to get more people vaccinated. "Folks supposed to have common sense. But it's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It's the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down."

Alabama has the fourth-lowest vaccination rate nationwide, according to a New York Times tracker.

Just 42.6% of adults in the heavily Republican state are fully vaccinated.

Earlier this week, an Alabama doctor named Brytney Cobia went viral for a Facebook post detailing the surge in hospitalizations she's facing among unvaccinated Alabamians.

"One of the last things they do before they're intubated is beg me for the vaccine," Cobia wrote. "I hold their hand and tell them that I'm sorry, but it's too late."