As I write this, nearly 20 percent of West Virginians have had at least one dose of the vaccine. Last month, The New York Times noted that “West Virginia has used 83 percent of its allotted vaccines, among the best in the nation.” To the degree that there is a holdup, the problem reflects a lack of supply of the vaccine, not with its distribution.
If only Nixon can go to China, then it could be that only a corpulent billionaire with a cornpone accent could slam fellow Republican governors for lifting mask mandates as simply trying to signal a “macho thing.” It works, because Justice (the state’s only billionaire) has a folksy look and friendly charm (think Haley Barbour) that belies his competent vaccine rollout. In his recent appearance on Face The Nation he warned against prematurely letting our guard down on COVID with the colorful saying, “One robin doesn’t make spring.” (One of his even more colorful sayings was probably just a computer glitch, but, regardless, has become a fun meme.)
Despite being a friend of Donald Trump’s, Justice has been a fairly blunt COVID hawk. “The way he presents himself, he never got blowback from Trump for doing that. I think that helps,” says Steven Allen Adams, a West Virginia reporter and columnist for Ogden Newspapers.
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