It’s not a “southern” thing. Multiple states are lagging behind that are not in the south. it’s a combination of socioeconomic, uneducated groups, cultural, and political lines.
please stop with your insulting generalizations and stereotypes. No one retires to then move up north. So maybe get down from that high horse.
oh and ironic: the state that many Northerners move to (Florida) is lagging behind. Oops! Guess those northerners left their high education and superior knowledge back in NY!
It hasn't helped that politics in this country has become blind "team" allegiance. A passage in one of my favorite series of books, the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series (Master and Commander fame), always rings true when I see blind allegiance of any sort (and this is ALL sides).
It paraphrased regarding patriotism AS A WORD something like... "one that generally comes to mean either
my country,
right or wrong, which is infamous, or
my country is always
right, which is imbecile.”
You can insert cable news outlet... political group... politician, etc... for the word "country". It tends to remind me of how we as a population tend to fall onto our comfortable sources for reassurance and stop questioning all that we hear.
Now, this is some of it but not all. I think it only really adds fuel to the fire and backs up deep ingrained reluctance. Demographically the uptake has fallen along race/ethnicity lines pretty well but not perfect judging by demographics on vaccine uptake. Hesitancy is there, generations old and rightfully so.
This is also a part of the country where, in general, it has been tough to get rural populations to feel an immanent threat. Disease is just another risk they encounter along with a myriad of other natural risks. They also aren't around a lot of strangers in their communities that would help to create doubt.
I doubt any vaccination program in the culture that I have been raised in (and part of) would have widely accepted or participated in it if not mandated by school systems as a child.
That being said, those I work around, not vaccinated, are not stupid people. They are naturally suspicious and questioning and it is ingrained and goes back many generations. Many of these same folks work in high risk occupations and the " stupid/tough" mantra is coming out of their own mouths. They accept that they may catch COVID but are willing to take their chances.
The real driver here is that there is no "reward" for vaccination that the Northern states have had as a catalyst. Mask mandates never existed here. Social distancing was practiced and masks in business requiring them, were observed in heavier population centers but, by and large, no one wore them in the general public. I have stated before that a lot of the people I work directly with, at some point and time, have tested positive. I myself quarantined 4 separate times. I have seen many posts by people pushing vaccinations to celebrate the day that mask wearing mandates are lifted. That driver was never part of the push in the South (to speak of).
I see the deep south, going forward, not being too far off with the amount of exposure and probable natural immunity. I do see there being local pockets of outbreak in rural counties as are occurring now. I see it never reversing course, regardless, in this part of the country. Hot spots will be dealt with as hot spots.