Biden Administration to make use of celebrities, athletes within the marketing campaign in opposition to Covid vaccine hesitation

In this screenshot Eva Longoria speaks at the 26th Annual Critics Choice Awards on March 07, 2021.

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The Biden government is launching a massive campaign Thursday to convince more Americans to take the Covid-19 vaccines, government officials told NBC News.

The campaign, titled “We Can Do This: Live,” targets young people through social media and includes virtual events where celebrities and athletes answer Americans’ questions about the vaccines, according to NBC News.

Famous people to take part in the campaign include actress Eva Longoria, Billionaire owner Mark Cuban of Dallas Mavericks, Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, co-hosts of “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” and people from NASCAR , the NBA and WNBA, according to NBC News.

According to a detailed publication of the campaign received from NBC News, the goal is to reach Americans, especially young people, “right in the places where they already consume content online, including social media, podcasts, YouTube and more”.

The efforts of the administration under the direction of the Ministry of Health and Human Services, According to surveys, a significant proportion of Americans are likely to refuse to fire the shots, potentially stifling the nation’s recovery from the pandemic that killed at least 569,405 Americans in just over a year.

Some young people appear to be resistant to vaccinations. A recent survey by STAT News-Harris found that 21% of Generation Z or young adults ages 18 to 24 said they wouldn’t get the Covid vaccine and another 34% said they would “wait a while.” and see “before being vaccinated.

In addition, some doctors said some of their patients had become skeptical of the vaccines after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration asked states last week to stop distributing Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine after six rare ones , but potentially to temporarily discontinue cases. Fatal bleeding disorders have been reported.

Many of former President Donald Trump’s supporters are also strongly against taking the vaccine, say public health and policy experts, which worries U.S. health officials who hope enough people will be vaccinated for the country to receive herd immunity to the virus .

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci previously said 75% to 85% of the US population would need to be vaccinated to create an “umbrella” of immunity that will prevent the virus from spreading.

Vaccine supplies are already exceeding demand in some regions of the US as local health authorities struggle to get people to vaccinate.

As of Wednesday, more than 134 million Americans, or 40% of the total US population, had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. Around 87.5 million Americans, or 26.4% of the total US population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC, the United States reported an average of 3 million shots per day over the past week, a slight decrease from 3.4 million reported shots per day on April 13.

Fauci said Monday that there would be a “court press” to get people vaccinated.

“It is very worrying that people are politically unwilling to be vaccinated,” Fauci said Monday on CBS This Morning. “I find this really extraordinary because they say you are encroaching on our freedoms by asking us to wear masks and doing restrictions that affect public health problems. The easiest way to overcome this is to yourself get vaccinated. “

–CNBCs Nate Rattner and Rich Mendez contributed to this report.