Gov. Asa Hutchinson Defends His State’s Low Vax Rate, Insists Mandates Wouldn’t Work in Arkansas: ‘You Have to Know the Culture’

Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AK) stood by his state’s approach to the coronavirus as CNN’s Dana Bash pressed him over new concerns about low vaccination rates in Arkansas compared to the rest of the country.

Hutchinson spoke to Bash on Sunday’s State of the Union, where the leading topic was the Omicron Covid variant and the concerns that have already been raised in America and abroad. Bash noted that “more than half of your residents in Arkansas are unvaccinated,” and she asked Hutchinson “is your state prepared to deal with this new variant?”

Hutchinson responded that “we’re making great progress in Arkansas,” but even as he acknowledged Omicron as a concern, he insisted that the state is seeing a steady rise in vaccination rates. Bash acknowledged Hutchinson’s public encouragement for people to get vaccinated, but she referred back to his state’s lower rates, plus Hutchinson’s opposition to vaccine mandates.

“Is it time to acknowledge that your approach isn’t working?” She asked.

“Not at all,” Hutchinson said. “In fact, what we’ve seen is that through education, through information, vaccination rates go up, and that’s more productive than a mandate that comes down, that people instinctively resist. You have to know the culture, you have to know how people respond to it, and in Arkansas, that information-based education is what is working, and will be effective. The mandates are not something that the people of Arkansas are going to respond well to.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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