CT State Senator Bolts From Appointment With Unvaccinated Dentist

NORWALK, CT — For state Sen. Bob Duff, if you're not vaccinated against the coronavirus, don't expect his business.

The Democrat, who represents Norwalk and Darien, essentially said that to his dentist this week when he walked out of an appointment when he found out the dentist had not received a COVID-19 vaccine.

"Went to the dentist today and was sitting in the chair ready to get numbed up," Duff wrote on Twitter Wednesday (see below). "Dentist walked in, we exchanged pleasantries and I asked if he was vaccinated. The answer was, 'NO.' I was floored."

Duff, who also serves as Majority Leader of the Connecticut Senate, did not name the dentist.

"No, he is not releasing any other info on the encounter or the name of the dentist," spokesperson Kevin Coughlin said in an email to Patch. "He does not plan to return to that dentist office any time in the near future."

On Twitter, Duff continued the story. "We had another two-minute conversation on our perspectives (I can only imagine my facial expression), and I told him I was uncomfortable and left."

The tweets touched off a slew of retweets, comments and questions on the veteran state senator's Twitter feed, many of them positive, and many of them doubting the incident occurred.

Connecticut is among states with a high rate of vaccination, with more than two-thirds of adults in the state having received at least one vaccination shot before the end of April.

But since then, vaccination rates have slowed in the state, which prompted Gov. Ned Lamont and other officials to urge Connecticut residents to get vaccinated.

"Moral of the story: don’t assume, don’t be afraid to ask and most importantly, don’t be afraid to leave," Duff wrote.