National ads will target vaccine reluctance
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration Thursday announced an ambitious advertising campaign intended to encourage as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The campaign, with ads in English and Spanish that will air throughout April on network TV and cable channels nationwide as well as online, comes as the administration is rapidly expanding access to coronavirus vaccines.
President Joe Biden announced last week a new goal of administering 200 million doses by his 100th day in office, doubling his initial goal. And last month, in an address to the nation, he announced a goal of making all U.S. adults eligible for a vaccine by May 1. Governors and public health officials in more than 40 states have said that they’ll meet or beat that deadline.
But deep skepticism about the vaccine remains a problem, particularly among Black people, Latinos, Republicans and white evangelicals.
Administration officials expect to soon face the possibility of supply exceeding demand if many Americans remain reluctant to be vaccinated. And widespread opposition to vaccination could set back a return to a more normal way of life as the virus continues to spread.
The administration’s new public awareness push will enlist 275 organizations — including NASCAR, the Catholic Health Association of the United States and the North American Meat Institute. Among the organizations are many Catholic and evangelical groups that are expected to help address religious concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses abortion-derived fetal cell lines.
The group is collectively called the COVID-19 Community Corps, administration officials said, and participating organizations can reach millions of Americans who trust those individual groups.
A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week found that the number of Black adults willing to be vaccinated had increased substantially since February. But 13 percent of respondents still said they would “definitely not” get a vaccine. Among Republicans and white evangelical Christians, almost 30 percent of each group said they would “definitely not” get a shot.
Administration officials said their research showed that vaccine messaging from medical professionals and community leaders, rather than from celebrities or the president, was often more persuasive.
“We are not always the best messengers,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month when speaking about vaccine hesitancy among conservatives.