President Sees 'Encouraging Signs' In Slog To Vaccinate The Unvaccinated
Nation sees 55-percent increase in the average number of new vaccinations
Large pockets of Americans, particularly those among the political right, had become stubbornly opposed to getting vaccinated against COVID-19, which in turn, helped fuel some of the highest COVID case numbers that the nation had seen in months.
After sustained and demonstrable success against the pandemic through much of his young presidency, things were starting to turn grim for Joe Biden.
However, starting at the White House, his administration began to take concrete steps to turn things around — including a new, direct focus to combat the misinformation, and outright disinformation, which has been responsible for many Americans on the right refusing to get their jabs.
And, Biden this week has some new data with which to call attention to the apparent fruits of this labor and note that vaccinations do make a difference.
For instance, most vaccinated state in the nation — Vermont — has seen just five new cases per day of COVID-19 for every 100,000 people who live in that state.
“That means, on any given day, only 30 people in the entire state of Vermont got COVID-19,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House.
Nearby Maine, which has vaccinated almost 80 percent of their adults, has seen just six new cases per 100,000.
“But the states with the lowest vaccination rates are seeing 10 to 20 times as many new cases per 100,000 people. It’s moving like wildfire through the unvaccinated community,” the president said. “And it’s heartbreaking, particularly because it’s preventable.”
The past two weeks has seen a 55-percent increase in the average number of new people getting vaccinated every day nationwide.
“In the last seven days alone, nearly 3 million Americans have gotten their first shot. That’s the highest seven-day total in a month,” Biden said.
Specifically, Louisiana has seen a 212-percent increase in the average number of newly vaccinated people in that state per day, going from 3,600 to more than 11,000 people vaccinated per day.
Arkansas is up 99 percent. Mississippi is up 125 percent. Alabama is up 186 percent — going from 3,200 to 9,150 people vaccinated per day.
“These are encouraging signs. We have to continue our aggressive efforts to vaccinate the unvaccinated,” the president said.
The incentive programs which Biden recently announced to induce more Americans to roll up their sleeves for the shots are being rolled out, such as state and local governments using funds from the American Rescue Plan to pay unvaccinated Americans $100 if they get their shots.
“You know, and already Minnesota and New Mexico have done that. And North Carolina announced its $100 incentive today,” Biden said.
Places that have offered the $100 to get vaccinated have seen an uptick of 25 percent of daily vaccination rates, according to Biden.
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