On July 6, President Joe Biden said at a press briefing that “we need to go to community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes, door to door —literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus.”
The proposed door-to-door outreach effort dispatches “local public health officials and volunteers” to speak with people about COVID-19 vaccines and how to access them, The Associated Press, Lead Stories and CNN report.
The plan was initially mentioned in Biden’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness, which was released in January and has been in operation since April.
Following Biden’s remarks on July 6, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on July 9 that this effort would be volunteer-led.
There is no evidence that those involved in the grassroots campaign are tracking people or asking for proof of vaccination, Lead Stories reported.
The grassroots component of the U.S. vaccination campaign has been in operation since April, when supplies of shots began outpacing demand. It was outlined and funded by Congress in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill passed in March.
Volunteers help to explain the vaccine, how to get one and sometimes administer the shot in people’s homes. There’s no evidence they are collecting ‘papers.’ As Psaki pointed out, it’s up to individuals whether they want to get the shot. The federal government does not maintain a database of who’s been vaccinated.
In January the administration released a National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness, which outlined that ‘the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will provide toolkits for local leaders and state and local organizations, empowering Americans to have one-on-one conversations with friends, family members, neighbors, and member of their communities.
On July 10, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra responded to criticism of the initiative. Becerra said “it is absolutely the government’s business” to know which Americans have been vaccinated before clarifying that there is “no database tracking who is vaccinated.”
The Morning Consult poll found those attacks had landed with Republican voters, as 65 percent oppose Biden’s “door-to-door” vaccination plan while 28 percent support it and six percent have no opinion.
A majority of respondents— 54 percent —support the plan overall as well as 81 percent of Democrats, the poll found, which was conducted July 9-12 among 1,996 registered voters.
