Last week, the Biden administration had announced that it had set aside almost $10 billion to increase the access of vaccines and to remove vaccine hesitancy among Americans. The minority community has been hit the hardest by the pandemic and the same community has been offering the most resistance to being vaccinated.
Last week, President Biden had also changed his administration’s vaccine goal from 100 million shots in 100 days to double and the new goal is 200 million shots by the time he completes 100 days in office.
Another goal announced was the availability of vaccines for all adults by May 1. Governors and health officials in more than 40 states say that they will be able to rollout vaccines for all adults by the deadline. Some states believe that it could be achieved earlier, in April.
However, the skepticism about the vaccine is still high among many communities including minorities such as the Blacks and Latinos. There is also a lot of hesitancy among Republicans and evangelists.
An ad campaign will air through the entire month of April on network TV and cable channels across the nation to address these issues. These ads will be both in English and in Spanish.
The administration is also going in for a public awareness drive roping in 275 organizations. Some of these organizations who are expected to have an impact on removing vaccine hesitancy are
- NASCAR
- The Catholic Health Association of the United States
- The North American Meat Institute
- Evangelists
These groups are called the Covid-19 Community Corps. The administration is hoping that they will reach millions of Americans who have trust and faith in these groups to decrease the number of sceptics.
The full list of participating organizations includes health professionals and scientists. Faith leaders and civil rights organizations have also been asked to help. Businesses, sports leagues and athletes are also lending support. The Department of Health and Human Services has also joined in the effort to remove skepticism.
Research has shown that most people say that they believe medical professionals and community leaders before celebrities or political leaders. As the public awareness campaign to encourage Americans to get vaccinated as a way to prevent the spread of the coronavirus increases, health professionals believe that the country could achieve herd immunity as more and more people let go of their hesitancy and take the COVID-19 vaccine.
