Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra addressed the pushback in response to Biden’s door-to-door vaccination effort on Thursday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday it was “absolutely the government’s business” to know which Americans haven’t been vaccinated yet against the coronavirus.
“[P]erhaps we should point out that the federal government has spent trillions of dollars to try to keep Americans alive during this pandemic, so it is absolutely the government’s business,” Becerra replied. “It is taxpayers’ business if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen the economy. And so it is our business to try to make sure Americans can prosper; Americans can freely associate.”
“Knocking on a door has never been against the law. You don’t have to answer, but we hope you do. Because if you haven’t been vaccinated, we can help dispel some of those rumors you’ve heard and hopefully get you vaccinated,” he added.
Becerra’s remarks come a day after President Biden suggested that door-to-door community outreach would be one of the ways to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, as the administration seeks to boost vaccination numbers.
“Please get vaccinated now. It works. It’s free,” Biden said during a speech while discussing the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus, which is now the dominant strain in the country. Health experts have said that vaccines appear to be effective against the variant.
“It’s never been easier, and it’s never been more important,” Biden continued Wednesday, urging vaccinations. “Do it now for yourself and the people you care about, for your neighborhood, for your country. It sounds corny, but it’s a patriotic thing to do.”
The GOP criticizes the Biden administration planned “door to door” campaign to pressure unvaccinated Americans to get the shot.
The covid vaccine has become an extensive debate over public health and American freedoms colliding.