Andy Slavitt, senior White House adviser for Covid’s response, predicted that a growing number of Americans will continue to get the vaccine against Covid due to messages and evidence from trusted sources.
“In Israel, where they are a little ahead of us, 89% of seniors have chosen to get the vaccine,” Slavitt said. “We believe we can come up with these kinds of numbers, if we continue to reliably answer people’s questions, because they are very good, safe and effective vaccines.”
About 37% of people over the age of 65 have been completely vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. States administered about 17 million shots last week alone.
In order to further facilitate the distribution of vaccines, the Biden administration announced that it will launch a nationwide vaccine availability website to serve as a link between the multitude of state vaccination registration websites. pharmacies and other companies.
Slavitt told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that “the idea would be if you enter your zip code, it will show you on a map, all the nearby places that claim to have vaccines.” He added that streamlining the process would not only lessen widespread frustration, but also vaccine hesitation.
Host Shepard Smith insisted on Slavitt about his comments on vaccine passports. At a White House press conference on Monday, Slavitt said vaccine passports should be free, private and secure, but “it’s not the government’s role to keep that data and do it.”
Slavitt said Tuesday evening that a government vaccine passport effort could lead some Americans to think the government is too involved, especially in collecting data that would be needed for a vaccine passport. This resistance, he said, would be counterproductive to the overall vaccination effort.
“We think the public will be more reluctant to get vaccinated if it feels like the government, the federal government plays too much of a role in it,” Slavitt said.