In New Vaccination Push, Biden Leans on His ‘Community Corps’
Frantic efforts to vaccinate people in an underserved area of Philadelphia underscore a difficult new stage of the nation’s vaccination campaign, as door-to-door efforts become the norm.
...with the ranks of the willing and able dwindling, the campaign has in many places already morphed into a door-to-door and person-by-person effort.
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The Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium, which Dr. Stanford leads, is one of about 11,000 members of what the Department of Health and Human Services is calling its Covid-19 community corps, a loose constellation of volunteers, corporations, advocacy groups and local organizations working to vaccinate Americans often left behind by the nation’s health care system.
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A slowdown in vaccinations has often been attributed to vaccine hesitancy, an opposition to or skepticism of vaccines. But a large group, about 30 million American adults, say they are open to getting a coronavirus vaccine but have not managed to do so, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate. Their ranks are larger than the outright hesitant.
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...some organizations publicize free beer...
[which ones please]
...and sports tickets for vaccinations, and as states increase their incentive-laden pleas — a weekly lottery in Ohio is giving five people $1 million each in return for being vaccinated — the quieter work of local leaders like Dr. Stanford will be key to reaching President Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults partly vaccinated by July 4, federal officials say. (The rate now stands at more than 59 percent.)
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Underneath tents in small rows of folding chairs, visitors had their choice of all three federally authorized vaccines, an indication of the nation’s staggering and still-growing surplus, with over 70 million doses delivered that have yet to be used. Without enough arms to deliver them to...
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...in their pursuit of Mr. Biden’s objectives, which include fully vaccinating 160 million adults by July 4, administration officials say that a sizable chunk of the adult population is still reachable.
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Scenes like those in Washington and Philadelphia have played out across the country, with a get-out-the-vote-like sweep. In southwestern Florida, Detroit, New Orleans and Kansas City, teams have gone door to door to explain the vaccines and how to get them, or even administered them in homes.
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I must say I have a vague sense of unease about this. I try to tease it out: The clause "in their pursuit of Mr. Biden's objectives" first came to mind. I'm not overly fond of that noun or any variations of it; haven't been for oh goin' on 225 annos. It's too obsessive, stalk-like. Is this pursuit medically necessary or is it politically necessary? I love the door-to-door effort. Full stop. But the reporter does not make a full stop. He (or she) specifically analogizes it to GOTV, which raises the medical vs political explicitly.
I first read the sublede as "frantic efforts" period. "Underserved areas of Philly," okay. But the article reports on similar frantic efforts in other underserved areas areas of other cities. Are "frantic efforts" medically needed at all, anywhere? 70% is the lowest percentage given by Dr. Fauci for herd immunity (he increased it a few times and his last statement was 90%) but Dr. Fauci has acknowledged he is giving his best expert estimate, that is, he doesn't really know, this is all new. But since those expert guesstimates we have some evidence on the ground, San Francisco. SF does not see herd immunity at 40% but the virus gets knocked to the canvas and takes a standing eight count at 40%. Have we not seen similar nationally? I look at the numbers carefully every goddamned day and as I wrote yesterday, I "hear" the virus moan every day now. If this were Frazier-Foreman I, Smokin' COVID has been on the canvas a couple times already.
Before getting to my other sources of unease I noticed as I began writing what appears to be a conflict in this article on what "Mr. Biden's objectives" are: "70 percent of adults partly vaccinated by July 4" and "fully vaccinating 160 million adults by July 4". Maybe I'm missing the subtlety again but it can't be both, right?
Unease: Honest to God, my second thought was, "It sounds like the Great Leap Forward." CHINA WILL SURPASS BRITAIN IN FIVE YEARS IN STEEL PRODUCTION. CHINA WILL SURPASS U.S.A. IN WHEAT PRODUCTION IN FIFTEEN YEARS. So what did the people of rural China do? Fudged the numbers to report to the Center. Made worthless pig iron in backyard furnaces. Put tables to stand on in the middle of wheat fields when Chairman Mao came for a look-see. Showed up at May Day rallies in Beijing with potemkin pumpkins the size of small cars. When you are "frantic" and impose upon underlings your freneticism you invite them to just make shit up. I feel the hidden hand of Ron Klain at work here, not Dr. Fauci. Litmus test: Is the incentive program official CDC guidance? If one gets on the CDC website will it say where one can get free beer? Asking for a friend. No further questions, Your Honor. Klain is obsessive. He wants every Biden promise kept, even at the cost of ridicule.
Show me the quality control. How are they determining that a person has never been vaccinated before? What if a fully vaccinated person shows up for the beer or lottery tickets? The president rejected requiring vaccination cards as too Big Brother. So this is the honor system, no? The honor system that I encountered at Publix, the honor system that has many businesses and local governments...uneasy.
Unease: Seriously, "free beer"? It is unseemly.