The White House launches new initiatives; beer, barbershops and baby sitting to encourage vaccinations

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Wed, 2021-06-02 17:36 — mike kraft

Free beer, other new incentives for Biden's 'vaccine sprint' WASHINGTON (AP) — Dangling everything from sports tickets to a free beer, President Joe Biden is looking for that extra something — anything — that will get people to roll up their sleeves for COVID-19 shots when the promise of a life-saving vaccine by itself hasn’t been enough. AP NEWS

President Biden announced a raft of new private sector initiatives on Wednesday to encourage Americans to get vaccinated, as his administration increasingly looks to outside partners to help meet its goal of 70 percent of adult Americans with at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine by the Fourth of July.

Declaring June as a “national month of action,” the administration wants to incentivize Americans who are hesitant about getting vaccinated with a range of perks, including free food delivery, baseball tickets, Xboxes and chances to win cruise tickets, groceries for a year and free airline flights.

The White House also announced the launch a handful of community-based outreach initiatives, including blanketing local media, providing colleges with resources and launching an effort to recruit 1,000 Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons across the country.

The more aggressive push to vaccinate Americans comes as just under 63 percent of American adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, but the demand is dropping and the remaining unvaccinated population is becoming harder to reach and to convince the vaccine is safe.

As part of the announcement, Biden underscored the safety and efficacy of the authorized vaccines while warning of the dangers of remaining unvaccinated heading into the fall. ...

Speaking to the partisan divides in vaccine uptake, Biden emphasized the Trump administration’s role in developing the vaccines. Many conservative areas, in particular, lag behind in vaccinating their populations as rates vary widely across the country. Some states have given at least one dose to two-thirds of the population, while others have reached slightly more than one-third.

“Getting the vaccine is not a partisan act,” Biden said. “The science was done under Democratic and Republican administrations. Matter of fact, the first vaccines were authorized under a Republican president.”

The private sector enticements include a CVS-run sweepstakes to win free cruises, tickets to Super Bowl LVI and cash prizes; gift cards from DoorDash; free tickets to Major League Baseball games for those vaccinated at stadiums; Xboxes distributed by Microsoft through Boys and Girls Clubs in hard-hit areas; free groceries from Kroger; and a sweepstakes run by United Airlines to win a year of free flights. ...

Here are some key parts of the program.

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