The New York Times went to Mountain Home, Arkansas to find out why only 36% of the people living there are vaccinated. Some of the interviews took place in a hospital where only 50% of the staff are vaccinated.
Alexander Stockton, a producer on the NYT's Opinion Video team, interviewed a 53-year-old Covid patient who said he didn't take the vaccine because "I'm more of a libertarian and I don't like being told what I have to do." The patient died 9 days after he was interviewed.
Stockton also interviewed a healthy woman who got vaccinated against her mothers wishes. She told the interviewer she wishes more people in her community would get vaccinated because "People should be more concerned with the well-being of people around them."
Meanwhile, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson who recently signed a bill to ban mask mandates and a bill banning vaccine requirements also announced there are no more ICU beds available in Arkansas for people sick with Covid.
