BERKELEY SPRINGS, West Virginia — On the heels of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showing the Mountaineer State is leading the nation in vaccine distribution to its people, outperforming centers of culture and power such as New York and California, Gov. Jim Justice has some words for elites who often characterize his state’s government or her people as backward or unsophisticated.
“I love rubbing it in their face,” said Justice of the Mountaineer State rising to the occasion.
While some predicted West Virginia would have little success in its rollout of the vaccine because the state rejected a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens, Justice said that decision is exactly why they are successful.
“First and foremost,” he said, “we had to market positively taking the vaccine because you have a vulnerable population that had some reluctance in taking it. Then, you had to figure out how am I going to get all these people to a place that they’re used to coming to? The answer was having the people come to places they were familiar with.”
“We used the local pharmacies,” he continued. “We used the local health departments. We used local schools. We set up distribution sites all across our state to where we were doing drive-through vaccinations in National Guard armories, and at school facilities and in big clinics and everything.”
Not only did Justice grasp the fundamental idea that people gravitate their trust to a person or a place that has been part of their community often for generations, but he also helped vaccinate a scattered population where about 35% of the people living in rural West Virginia is over the age of 55.
“There’s a saying, ‘You can’t drive on a flat road in West Virginia,” Justice said, explaining the topography and the isolation it can cause for some residents. “It’s mountains and hollows and everything else, and it’s tough going to get all of our people or for them to get to a medical facility.”
Here, in this Eastern Panhandle town, people went to the Berkeley Springs High School this past Saturday. It is a familiar place where most residents who have lived here for multiple generations sent their children or grandchildren to school.
According to CDC data, more inoculations have been given to West Virginians per capita than in any of the other 49 states, with well over 7% of the population receiving the first of two shots.
“We are also the first state in the country to complete offering the first dose to all long-term care facilities before the end of last year,” Justice said.
He expects the distribution of the second shot to be completed by the end of the month.
“I’ll tell you something, the world is beginning to awaken that West Virginia is the diamond in the rough that they missed,” Justice said. “There’s a bunch of really smart people here, and they’re good people. They work really hard. They’re low crime. They’re faith-based. You got your four most beautiful seasons on the planet. We’re within a rock’s throw of two-thirds of the population in the country, and we abound in everything from natural resources to, now, tourism and diversification and high tech and on and on and on. West Virginia just a diamond in the rough.”
The owner of the iconic Greenbrier resort and a colorful character in his own right, Justice spent most of last year anchoring televised state COVID-19 briefings.
“We took this virus seriously from the very beginning,” he explained. “We were the first in the nation to stop visitation in nursing homes and the first in the nation to absolutely test every single resident and all of our nursing staffs.”
Justice, who still coaches the local girl’s high school basketball team, ran and won as a Democrat in 2016. He changed his party affiliation less than a year later to Republican.
Justice comfortably won reelection to the governor’s office this past November, marking the first time in 20 years that the Republican nominee won the governor’s office here in West Virginia.
“You’ll find in talking to me, I’m not a politician,” he asserted. “I really don’t give a hoot about Republicans and Democrats, independents. And the one thing I’ll always do is, I’ll always tell you the truth. I’m not someone who is going to say, ‘Well, I can say that because that’s just politics.’ If it’s not the truth, I don’t say it, and it’s always who I am.”
