
White House Lauds ‘Innovative’ Way to Get More Truckers Vaccinated
Washington D.C. – The Biden Administration is lauding recent efforts to both vaccinate truckers as well as to persuade more of them to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a White House briefing on Monday, Jen Psaki, press secretary, said in future briefings she will be “lifting up some of the innovative ways that Americans across the country are meeting their communities where they are with the vaccine.”
She then pointed specifically to recent efforts by some truck stops to provide vaccination clinics for truckers.
“In the last few months North Dakota, South Carolina and Iowa all set up vaccine sites for truckers [at truck stops] with the goal of literally meeting these Americans where they are at… in their trucks or out of their trucks,” Psaki stated. “Since then, more than 9,000 truckers have received a vaccine at these pop up sites.”
Earlier this year a coalition of major trucking groups lobbied the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to designate truck stops as “mobile vaccination sites.”
“Utilizing truck stops and travel plazas as mobile vaccination sites would alleviate significant challenges that truck drivers currently face in receiving an expedient vaccine,” the group wrote to the CDC. “Many states, for example, currently require proof of residency to receive a vaccine. Truck drivers should be allowed to receive a vaccine in a state other than that within which they reside due to their length of time on the road and away from home.”
Since that time the vaccine has become readily-accessible for most Americans, including truckers, who want it.
However, like a significant portion of the population, many truckers have and continue to express reservations about receiving the shot often citing concerns such as the vaccines are not yet FDA approved.
Notably, the vaccines currently available are authorized for “emergency use.”
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Lamenting that hesitancy persists, President Biden recently framed the issue as your “patriotic duty” to take the jab.
Psaki framed the issue in much the same way even calling on family members as well as American media outlets and corporations to ramp up pressure on those who have so far refused.
“We all have a duty to continue making the case for the vaccine to our friends and family,” she said. “Companies, media, and individuals can all play a special role as messengers.”