CHRISTIANSTED — If a Virgin Islander took a shot today — it was probably a Cruzan Rum shot — not the COVID-19 vaccine.
That’s because the USVI has the third-lowest rate of coronavirus inoculations among the eight overseas American territories and freely-associated states.
According to the latest statistics from the CDC, the U.S. Virgin Islands has 8.2 percent of its population fully vaccinated.
Only the Marshall Islands and Micronesia have a lower percentage of their population who is fully vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 data tracker says that the territory has administered 28.115 dose of the vaccine to its residents. That figure represents 25,858 people per 100,000 residents of population.
According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. Virgin Islands has 8.763 fully vaccinated people in a total population of at least 120,000.
Shockingly, the territory has received 46,800 vaccine doses, but only administered 28,115 shots — which means that fully 40 percent of the vaccines the USVI got from the federal government have gone unused.
The average rate of distribution on the U.S. mainland hovers around 80 percent of vaccine doses administered — but, the U.S. Virgin Islands has only administered 60 percent of its doses.
The American territory that has the highest percentage of its population fully vaccinated is Guam at 17.7 percent.
Meanwhile, on local AM radio, people are allowed to call in to talk shows with grossly inaccurate information about the COVID-19 vaccine.
On “VI In The Morning” with former St. Croix Senator St. Claire Williams as the host, The Reef-1620’s talk show regularly permits callers to spew disinformation that the vaccine is dangerous or deadly — without telling them that there is no evidence to support that belief.
The result is that many people on St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John and Water Island are refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine — to the overall detriment of the community as a whole.
Although Governor Albert Bryan was publicly pictured getting the vaccine himself on in January, weekly press conferences called “The COVID-19 Update” rarely talk about the safety and efficacy of getting the vaccine.
While the people spreading shameful lies about the shot — like former Senator Williams’ talk show and The Reef — are more than happy to fill that void with their own degenerate programming.
On the mainland, the state that has the most fully vaccinated people is Alaska with 18.3 percent of its population fully vaccinated, while Georgia is the worst with just 9.8 percent of its population fully vaccinated.