Vaccinated Americans are fed up with the unvaccinated

Anger at the unvaccinated

As COVID-19 cases surge around the country and the CDC recommends the return of indoor masking in hotspot areas, even for the vaccinated, many people are running out of patience.

NEW YORK - As COVID-19 cases surge around the country and the CDC recommends the return of indoor masking in hotspot areas, even for the vaccinated, many people are running out of patience.

"It's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It's the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down," said Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama, where just 43% of adults are fully vaccinated.

Her comments are resonating with people, even in New York, where the adult vaccination rate is near 70%. Those who are fully vaccinated are getting fed up with the other 32%.

"I think it's very selfish," said Evan on the Upper East Side. "It's one thing to take care of yourself but it's important to take care of others as well."

"I'm not too happy with people who aren't getting vaccinated," said Corrine, a mom to several children under 12. "I don't think it's fair to children, we still don’t know what kind of variants could possibly happen in the future that will make them sicker than they are getting today."

Then there are the doctors and health care workers who have seen surges after surges in cases.

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"We've certainly been in the heart of it, in the dogfight," said Dr. Eric Costanzo, the pulmonary critical care director at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center, which admitted several new COVID patients on Tuesday.

"It's disheartening," he said. "It's disheartening to see an uptick when all of us in health care are exhausted and now the numbers might be climbing and there's a potential to sort of offset that."

COVID breakthrough cases

Dr. Dave Chokshi says that there is a slightly higher rate of breakthrough cases among the vaccinated.