Gov. Jim Justice: W. Virginia’s Vax-Resistant Residents Playing ‘Death Lottery’

GOP West Virginia Gov . Jim Justice warns that those who are resisting getting a COVID-19 vaccination are playing a “death lottery.”

In an interview aired Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Justice acknowledged only 46% of his conservative state’s residents are vaccinated.

“The red states probably have a lot of people that are very, very conservative in their thinking and they think, ‘well, I don’t have to do that’,” he said the shot-resistant residents.

“But they’re not thinking right. When it really boils right down to it, they’re in a lottery to themselves. You know, we have a lottery that basically says, if you’re vaccinated, we’re going to give you stuff. Well, you’ve got another lottery going on, and it’s the death lottery.”

Justice said it’s been especially hard to reach young residents.

“The young people, we’re having a hard time getting them across the finish line and getting them vaccinated,” he said.

“But maybe what you got to do is lead them to water and then if they won’t drink, you got to just some way stand up and push their head down to some way at least a few will drink,” he added.

He lamented there are only limited options in getting vaccine compliance.

“I hate to say this, but what would put them over the edge is an awful lot of people die,” Justice said. “The only way that’s really going to happen is a catastrophe that none of us of want. And so we just got to keep trying though.”

West Virginia has offered an array of giveaways to those who get vaccinated, including millions of dollars, customized pickup trucks, hunting shotguns and hunting rifles, 25 weekend getaways to local state parks, five lifetime hunting and fishing licenses and two full four-year scholarships to any institution in West Virginia to vaccinated 12- to 25-year-olds. They even offered a bulldog puppy named Babydog.