August 24, 2021: -On Saturday, former President Donald Trump was booed at a rally in Alabama after telling supporters they should be vaccinated.

“And you know what? I believe totally in your freedoms. You’ve got to do what you have to do, but I recommend: take the vaccines. I did it. It’s good. Take the vaccines,” Trump said.

Large swaths of the South are experiencing an increase in Covid cases and hospitalizations because of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. Cullman is experiencing a surge in cases that has matched its previous peak from late December, wherein the rally was hosted. On Thursday, the city declared a Covid state of emergency to provide extra emergency support for the rally.

According to an NBC News tracker, Alabama has the lowest vaccinated rate in the U.S., with just over 36 percent of its population fully inoculated. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has said “the unvaccinated folks” should be held responsible for Covid’s resurgence in the state.

Nationwide, most Covid hospitalizations and deaths occur among unvaccinated Americans, and The New York Times reported.

A Kaiser Family Foundation vaccine tracking poll released this month found that Republicans were the second-least likely demographic group to get the vaccination, only above uninsured Americans under 65. While 57 percent of Republicans have received one dose of the vaccine, 40 percent say they never want to get the vaccination, will only do so if it’s required, or are still waiting to see the results. That 40 percent total is the second-highest of the 23 demographic groups surveyed.

Previously, Trump has endorsed vaccination but has often matched it with similar caveats. After promoting the vaccines in an interview with Fox Business personality Maria Bartiromo, just last week, Trump claimed the future booster doses recommended by the Biden administration as “an operation to make money for Pfizer.”

Pfizer, which Trump has attacked similarly previously, was not a part of his administration’s “Operation Warp Speed,” the public-private partnership to accelerate vaccine development. Trump did not talk about Moderna, which was a part of the program.