White House promotes NASCAR race as vaccination site amid uptick in coronavirus cases
By Eugene Scott,
The Biden administration is promoting an unusual event and location for coronavirus vaccinations — NASCAR’s race Saturday at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“They’ll have vaccines on-site and will be encouraging vaccinations,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “This is the type of whole-of-country approach that is reaching people in convenient locations with messengers they trust.”
NASCAR will host the “Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200” at the speedway in Loudon, N.H., where 40 teams are to compete.
The atypical site underscores the challenge for the administration amid an uptick in cases of covid-19 among unvaccinated Americans, resistance to getting the shots that has evolved into opposition in some locales, and a growing number of conservatives expressing open hostility toward the vaccines.
President Biden fell short of his goal to have 70 percent of American adults receiving at least one vaccine shot by July 4, in part because of vaccine resistance in multiple states in the South and skepticism among some demographics, including people of color, White men, conservatives and rural Americans, for a host of reasons.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll this month showed that 93 percent of Democrats say they’ve either been vaccinated or plan to be, while just 49 percent of Republicans say the same.
Although 160 million Americans are fully vaccinated, many are in Democratic-led states, leaving the unvaccinated in other parts of the country vulnerable to the virus. Without mentioning political party affiliation, Psaki made clear that the administration would be relying on members of the clergy, NASCAR and other sources that can appeal to conservatives.
“We want to partner with trusted voices and individuals and communities, many of whom you will never have heard of. And they may have five Twitter followers, if they’re on Twitter, which they probably are not if they’re not on the coast and not liberal,” she said.
NASCAR is among several sports organization seeking to encourage their fans to get vaccinated as variants of the coronavirus threaten to return some communities to infection rates that mirror some of the worst days of the pandemic. In May, NASCAR announced the “Race Back to the Track” sweepstakes, which provides fans with opportunities to win tickets to the 2022 Daytona 500 with Global Citizen.
[Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens]
The list of organizations with which the White House is partnering to encourage these Americans to get vaccinated is growing as health officials fear infection levels will worsen if vaccination rates do not improve.
“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a briefing Friday.
Psaki said the administration is working with the National Rural Health Association to focus on the best approach “to get vaccines out to communities and meet people where they are.”
The failure of some communities to reach high vaccination rates and the spread of variants have caused some cities to reimplement mask ordinances and other restrictions.
Researchers at Georgetown University recently said that the five most significant clusters in the country with the lowest vaccination rates and significant population sizes are in the Southeast and Midwest.
This past week, 18-year-old actress and singer Olivia Rodrigo was at the White House to record videos to encourage young people to get vaccinated. Psaki said the administration would continue to work with celebrities and wished that others would step up to offer encouragement.
“It be great if this was the cue for, like, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani to come out. . . . That would be awesome. I wish that was happening today,” she said at the daily briefing.
