Politics

Here’s What Joe Biden’s ‘Door-To-Door’ Vaccine Campaign Actually Looks Like

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Shelby Talcott Senior White House Correspondent
Font Size:

President Joe Biden highlighted Tuesday the federal government’s plan to “literally” knock on doors in an effort to get more people vaccinated, causing at least some to worry that a new pressure campaign would descend on their communities.

The campaign, it turns out, has been happening since at least April. It also doesn’t use federal strongmen or intimidation tactics, the administration said. While the administration is targeting areas with low vaccination rates, the ground game is comprised primarily of local volunteers and some religious and evangelical groups, according to the White House.

The White House further said that the volunteers use CDC vaccination data in order to find communities with low vaccination rates, and that they do not use individual medical records.

Many on the right, including the Arizona attorney general, expressed skepticism in the wake of Biden’s comments.

“We are continuing to wind down the mass vaccination sites that did so much in the spring to rapidly vaccinate those eager to get their first and second shot. Now we need to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes door to door, literally knocking on doors, to help get the remaining people protected from the virus,” Biden said Tuesday.

WATCH:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also detailed the administration’s efforts earlier Tuesday, which she said include “targeted community by community door-to-door outreach to get remaining Americans vaccinated.”

The comments sparked major backlash. Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw tweeted: “How about don’t knock on my door. You’re not my parents. You’re the government. Make the vaccine available, and let people be free to choose. Why is that concept so hard for the left?” (RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Compares Biden’s Door-To-Door Vaccine Push To Nazi Storm Troopers)

Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert warned that “the government now wants to go door-to-door to convince you to get an ‘optional’ vaccine” and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sent a letter to Biden calling the move a “government intrusion into American’s health care privacy.”

“I, along with many Arizonans, was greatly alarmed by your White House indicating that it might be in possession of medical records revealing the contact information for Americans who have not been vaccinated,” Brnovich wrote. “If this is the case, this is a severe breach of privacy, and I will not tolerate such intrusions within Arizona.”

Volunteers and staffers knock on a door during an outreach effort to inform residents about an upcoming COVID-19 vaccination event, on June 30, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

Volunteers and staffers knock on a door during an outreach effort to inform residents about an upcoming COVID-19 vaccination event, on June 30, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

The government isn’t obtaining personal information for non-vaccinated Americans. An administration official explained to the Daily Caller that the White House doesn’t mandate vaccines – a point White House officials have repeatedly made.

While the administration doesn’t have a database on non-vaccinated individuals, it is using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to focus on areas with low vaccination rates, the official said. This information, which tracks counties’ vaccination rates across the U.S., is publicly available on the CDC’s website.

Vaccination providers collect data on the number of COVID-19 doses administered, which is then reported to the CDC, according to the website.

“Using CDC data, we targeted areas with low vaccination rates and large ‘movable’ populations, and knocked on every door there,” the administration official said. “We also took into account other considerations, including the CDC’s SVI to ensure we were reaching some of our hardest to reach populations.  We saw movement in states where we deployed this tactic, including in Alabama, Florida, Texas and Georgia which had vaccination rates above the national average in the month of June. We plan to continue this work moving forward in the months ahead.”

This “door-to-door” vaccination effort is not a new thing, the official noted. The effort was included during Biden’s “Month of Action,” where he pushed to have 70% of adult Americans receive at least one COVID-19 dose by July 4. Biden fell short of this goal, but the administration has continued to push vaccinations for more Americans.

In fact, individuals have been going door-to-door since April when the administration launched the Community Corps, an entirely grassroots network for various communities, the official told the Caller. Many of these community groups are made up of religious and evangelical groups as well as people focused on rural communities.

A staff member of City Councilwoman Sheila Tyson speaks to a resident during a door-knocking outreach effort to inform people about an upcoming COVID-19 vaccination event, on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

A staff member of City Councilwoman Sheila Tyson speaks to a resident during a door-knocking outreach effort to inform people about an upcoming COVID-19 vaccination event, on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama. (ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

“In the Month of Action, we leveraged grassroots and community voices across the country to make the case for getting vaccinated to their communities,” the administration official explained. “A key part of this effort was door to door canvasing which allowed for one on one conversations about the importance of vaccination and encouraging those who are already vaccinated to talk to their friends and family about making the same decision.”

Ultimately, the White House has remained firmly against mandating vaccines. It has, however, continued to develop ideas to promote vaccinations and reach those unsure about getting the shot – including putting together volunteers to inform people living in low-vaccination rate areas about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Editors note: This post was updated to clarify exactly how the administration targets communities with low vaccination rates.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel