With the rise of a more contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, First Lady Jill Biden (D) and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff (D) are scheduled to visit both Arizona and Texas this week to encourage residents to get vaccinated. Stop on their trip include Houston, Dallas and Phoenix. On June 29th, the First Lady will be visiting the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and then the First Lady will be joined by. Emhoff in Houston.
Dr. Rodney Young with Texas Tech Physicians explained last week that the Delta variant is more dangerous and contagious. “It appears to be something like 60% more transmissible than the UK variant we were talking about, which was already more transmissible than the original COVID variant,” Dr. Young explained.
Both the First Lady and First Gentleman will be visiting Phoenix on Wednesday, June 30th, and in every stop they will be visiting COVID-19 vaccine sites.
Both are expected to discuss how to get the vaccine while empowering grassroots efforts in vaccine outreach and education. The visits are also aimed to address any hesitancy about the vaccine.
Frank Luntz (R), a Republican pollster, addressed this hesitancy last week, arguing that “the hesitation among younger Americans and among Trump voters has been too hard to overcome.” Luntz added that “they think they are making a statement by refusing to be vaccinated” and that “for Trump voters, it’s a political statement.” However, “for younger adults, it’s about telling the world that they are immune.”
The visits come after the White House announced that it would not meet its goal of having 70% of adults in the U.S. vaccinated with at least one dose by the Fourth of July.
Wednesday of last week, an update from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control indicated that. 65.6% of Americans age 18 and older had already received one shot of a vaccine. By July. 4th, the number is estimated to climb to 67%.
