In a stunning 47-second video clip from an interview with a northern Indiana TV outlet, Attorney General Todd Rokita tweeted a baseless statement Thursday alleging that Indiana’s COVID-19 numbers are fake.
Rokita could have given reasonable answers to justify his personal belief and the state’s official legal opinion that a federal vaccine mandate for employers is an unconstitutional overreach of power.
But when asked in the interview with Michiana’s WSBT 22 about leading Indiana’s effort to fight a federal vaccine mandate even while the vast majority of Hoosiers ending up in hospitals from the virus are unvaccinated, Rokita said: “First of all, I don’t believe any numbers any more. And I’m sorry about that. But they’re politicized, this has been politicized since day one.”
Rokita thus undermined the credibility and integrity of the Indiana State Department of Health — a department run by fellow Republicans — as well as that of every hospital, doctor’s office and COVID-19 testing site and lab in the state.
Rokita provided absolutely no evidence to back up his claim — we assume because he has absolutely none to provide — before moving on to his next set of statements of questionable accuracy.
“I think we have to focus on whether or not people are dying anymore,” Rokita said. “And the fact is the omicron variant is a much milder variant.”
OK, we can do that.
Within the past week, Indiana has been averaging nearly 50 deaths per day from COVID-19, the second-highest rate since March 2020, only exceeded by the November/December/January spike last winter, when deaths from COVID-19 peaked at over 100 per day.
We also know that more than 80% of those people dying from COVID-19 are Hoosiers who opted not to get vaccinated.
In mid-July 2021, before the highly infectious delta variant arrived in the state, Indiana’s average daily COVID-19 deaths numbered just two per day. Our state is currently a far cry from those record lows.
Those facts have little bearing on Rokita, however, because we know from five seconds earlier in the interview that his baseline position is one of unsubstantiated disbelief and denial of that data as gathered and reported by the state government he serves.
Rokita then goes on to claim: “The reasons hospitals are filling up is because their own health care workers won’t come to work because of the mandates put on them.”
This appears to conflict with reality.
In September, Indiana University Health, the state’s largest health care system, reported that it had lost 125 employees who opted not to comply with the network’s self-imposed mandate that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
While 125 employees may sound like a lot, IU Health employs approximately 36,000 workers across the state. That amounted to 0.34% of the network’s total employee base.
Locally, Parkview Health recently informed the public that it has as near-record-high capacity, driven by high numbers of both COVID-19 patients (more than 80% of whom are unvaccinated) as well as unusually high numbers of non-COVID patients. When asked about the staff, Parkview leaders noted that workers are burned out and disappointed by another surge that the chief quality and safety officer classified as “preventable suffering,” but there was no mention of practitioners, nurses and workers quitting in droves because of vaccine requirements.
Other systems may be facing more opposition to vaccine mandates affecting their workforce, but the statement that hospitals are full because workers aren’t showing up due to vaccine mandates seems far-fetched.
Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indiana Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box and the CEOs of every hospital system in this state should condemn and respond to Rokita’s baseless allegations.
Rokita is right about one thing, though.
It is hard to believe how politicized the pandemic has become.
