By Hannah Claire Brimelow
On July 4th, the Biden administration officially missed its nationwide deadline to have had 70% of adults receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The age group least likely to get vaccinated? Young adults ages 18-24.
The President set his eyes on Independence Day on May 4 after saying “At the end of the day, most people will be convinced by the fact that their failure to get a vaccine may cause other people to be sick and die.”
However, “the vaccination rate has fallen in the weeks since, from a seven-day average of 2.2 million shots per day across all age groups on the day of the announcement to 1.2 million per day as of June 16,” CNBC reported.
As of July 5th, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s data indicates that 67.1% adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Additionally, the CDC reports that 157.3 million people are fully vaccinated – slightly fewer than the 160 million Biden originally outlined.
“At the end of the day, the young people — we’re having a hard time getting them across the finish line and getting them vaccinated,” West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said during an interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz
West Virginia was initially a leader in vaccination distribution, but has seen a dramatic decline in vaccination rates — reporting this month that 56.1% of the state’s adults have received at least one of the shots.
Biden declared June the “national month of action” and tried to bribe Americans to get the infamous jab with perks.
CNN reported that in partnership with the White House, Anheuser-Busch, “the national brewer that produces Budweiser” planned to “give away free alcohol if the nation [reached] Biden’s goal to have 70% of US adults receive at least one dose of the vaccine by July 4.”
According to the White House website dedicated to the campaign, “Door Dash [gave] $2 million in gift cards to the National Association of Community Health Centers to incentivize vaccinations” and “Major League Baseball teams [offered] on-site vaccinations at games and [gave] free tickets to those who [got] vaccinated.”
Other corporate sponsors of the administration’s vaccine push include CVS, Kroger, Microsoft, and United Airlines.
But despite the tickets and the beer, young Americans remain unlikely to get vaccinated. Most says they have concerns about safety and side-effects. The Chicago Tribune noted “in one study, nearly a quarter of 18- to 39-year-olds surveyed in the spring said they would ‘probably or definitely not’ get vaccinated” and that “adults aged 18 to 24 were least likely to report getting immunized and most likely to describe being unsure or definitely planning to forgo vaccination.”
The government’s push for vaccinations will undoubtedly last through the fall. CNBC reports that hundreds of colleges will require COVID vaccinations as a condition of enrollment during the 2021-2022 school year. This includes school like the State University of New York, California State University, University of California, Georgetown University, George Washington University, American University, Yale University, Wesleyan University, Duke University, Brown University, Emory University, Northeastern University, Rutgers University, Villanova University, and University of Virginia.
More than likely, these requirements could drive more 18 to 24 year-olds to get vaccinated in order matriculate on campuses across the country in the fall.
California, Maryland, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Colorado have all reached the 70% benchmark.
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