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Harris reportedly pressured Biden’s coronavirus team to focus on neglected communities
After Vice President Kamala Harris received her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a televised event at the National Institutes of Health in January, Rep. Joyce Beatty’s (D-Ohio) phone lit up with calls from constituents that were ” recently curious “about how to get vaccinated, she told The New York Times. As Beatty explained, watching a black woman get the vaccine “gave people hope and education”. Black Americans are almost three times more likely to die from coronavirus, notes the Times, but are much less likely to be inoculated, largely because of lack of access, but also, some experts pointed out, because of caution about programs government-run health care. Harris, it seems, was able to alleviate some of these concerns about her public vaccination, and she also allegedly pressured President Biden and his advisers in particular to focus on how their policies will ensure that the least favored people in urban and rural settings are protected from the virus. “The vice president put a lot of pressure on us, in a very good way,” Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients told the Times. “She insisted: ‘Where are we at the mobile vaccination units? How many will we have, in what time frame? Will they be able to reach rural and urban communities? How much progress have you made? “Read more about Harris’s role in the Biden administration so far in The New York Times. More stories from theweek.comSenator Ivanka? 5 scathing caricatures about Woody Allen’s ‘Explosive’ documentary of the Republican Party’s Marjorie Taylor Greene problem with video account of Dylan Farrow, 7 years old, to debut on HBO