President Joe Biden announced Uber and Lyft would provide free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination facilities as several GOP governors told him that some residents of their states remain unvaccinated because they could not be bothered to find a shot.
The ride-hailing companies “are really stepping up” by providing transportation to places where the inoculations are available, the president told a handful of governors during a virtual meeting Tuesday. That comes as the Biden administration deals with experts estimating that the country likely will never reach so-called “herd immunity.”
The federal-private partnership comes after administration officials long hailed their vaccination plans for establishing vaccination sites within five miles of most people’s homes.
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But even with those allegedly nearby sites, the national vaccination rate has slowed in recent weeks. The seven-day average of doses in arms as of Thursday was 2.1 million per day — down 26% from the week before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine and other state leaders told Biden that just about every resident in their areas who were excited or in favor of getting at least one vaccine shot already has done so.
The group that is now cycling through vaccination facilities are those who found it too inconvenient because the drive across town was just too hard.
“We’re seeing is … a real appetite for Johnson and Johnson. They want that one shot and to be done,” DeWine told Biden, adding mobile and walk-up clinics have helped get this low-motivation group on the road to inoculation.
“They want to make up their mind that day and be able to knock on that door” and get the vaccine, DeWine said, adding that people who “have hesitated in the past” have been waiting for “an opportunity [that] makes it easier to do. It’s not that they’re against getting vaccinated. It’s just that they haven’t gotten around to it.
Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox echoed his colleague from the Buckeye State, saying many of the unvaccinated residents of his state “just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
He asked the White House for help “modeling what a fully vaccinated person can do.” Biden replied, “Good point.”
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Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz offered a unique approach to his outreach to vaccine-hesitant Republicans in his state: “Go get vaccinated so you’re alive to vote against me in the next election. I don’t care. I just want to get it done.”
