WH details outreach to Republicans who are hesitant to take COVID-19 vaccine

During the White House COVID-19 response team briefing on Friday, press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed by Yahoo News’ Brittany Shepherd about the Biden administration’s plans to reach out to Republicans who are reluctant to take a coronavirus vaccine.

Video Transcript

- One on vaccine hesitancy and one on gun control.

JEN PSAKI: Sure.

- So a latest poll, YouGov, housed at Yahoo, said that 24% of unvaccinated Republicans said they would never get vaccinated. This is higher, we found, than any other group or cross tab. Are you worried that the vaccine hesitancy from these Republicans, or white Republicans, will make it harder for President Biden's goal of vaccinating all adults by summer? And what is your guys' thought, or what is the administration doing to persuade Republicans in particular to get vaccinated? You're talking about [INAUDIBLE], who are the effective messengers here?

JEN PSAKI: Well, we're concerned about vaccine hesitancy in many communities across the country because we are going to get to the point, clearly, where we have enough supply to vaccinate every American-- every adult in this country. And it will get to the point where we have more vaccines than people who want to take the vaccine. And we see that on the horizon.

So we have taken a number of steps in communities where we feel we can be very effective messengers in-- and that includes-- you know, just statistically, just because I know you were giving a statistic about kind of white conservative Republicans, but Black and Brown communities are actually the hardest hit by the pandemic, two times more deaths and hospitalizations, also communities where there high levels of vaccine hesitancy. And we have taken a number of steps to open, as I mentioned, these community health centers, invest in more mobile units.

A big issue, though, is access, and accessibility, and meeting people where they are, regardless of their political affiliation. And so one of the steps we've taken and we can effectively do outside of any partisan politics is ensure that there are locations in trusted locations community-- health centers pharmacies, where anybody of any political persuasion can get the vaccine. And they don't need to wear a Joe Biden sticker in order to do that.

But we also recognize, as I noted in response to the earlier question, that we are not always going to be the most effective messenger, and there are outside organizations that are doing a range of outreach, doing ads and things along those lines-- one that featured former Republican President Bush and others. And I think that kind of work is something we fully support and we feel is important in order to increase the number of people who feel comfortable and confident in the effectiveness of the vaccine.

- To follow up on that, we've heard a lot from the administration on very specific plans about Black and Brown communities and how they're being disproportionately affected. But is the White House thinking of how to reach Republicans who will not take the vaccine? Talk about the ad-- former President Bush is in it. Of course, notably, former President Trump was not there. Is there outreach to Trump or to any other high profile Republicans to talk to these Republicans who say they will never take the vaccine?

JEN PSAKI: I guess what I'm trying to say, but maybe not clearly enough, is that we recognize as a Democratic administration with a Democratic president that we may not be the most effective messenger to communicate with hard core supporters of the former president. And we have to be clear-eyed about that. Now, we also know that it is not always famous people who are the most effective messengers.

And so when I was talking about access, what I was getting at is that doctors, medical experts, community leaders are often not seen as faith leaders, as partisan officials. And so we also work to empower, to provide funding, to work with these different organizations to get into communities and convey-- this is safe, it's effective, it will save lives. This is not a partisan issue.

So that is a step we are taking. But, yes, in terms of elevating outside voices, we certainly support that. But there's a lot of outside work that's happening to reach out to these groups as well.

- Can we expect to see any collaboration from the White House and high profile Republicans, like, you know, on Twitter, on Instagram, or anything like that to speak to these communities, as there are with other Black and Brown people.

JEN PSAKI: Let me try this again. So-- I mean--

- I'm hearing you, I just want to get very specific about-- the outreach to Black and Brown communities is very specific. Is there going to be very specific Republican--

JEN PSAKI: So what I'm conveying is we are focused on, how do we address the root issues and the approach that will solve the challenge here. And what I'm trying to get at is that accessibility-- it may not satisfy this conservative Republican and this famous Democrat working together-- that may happen, right? But the way that we have seen through data, the way that our health and medical experts have conveyed to us is that making it accessible, doing that through community health centers, ensuring there is access and supply, making sure that local doctors, faith leaders, community leaders, have access to that, have the information is incredibly effective. That's what we're investing in and can also be quite effective with many of the groups that you've talked about.