Door-to-door COVID-19 vaccine outreach under way in North Carolina county — and some folks are getting the shots right on their front porches



Outreach groups have been going through certain neighborhoods in North Carolina's Mecklenburg County for several months now, educating and encouraging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, WCNC-TV reported.

But on Monday, the station said the health department launched a new initiative called Doses to Doors to increase the number of vaccinated residents.

Image source: WCNC-TV video screenshot

What are the details?

Simply put: Health department workers "armed with COVID-19 vaccines" joined the outreach teams "to make it easy and convenient to get a shot right at home," WCNC reported.

"We get people that will say, 'Yes, I'll get the shot,' but the follow-up has always been the issue. Will they go? How can we get people to go out and go?" Robert Dawkins with Action NC — a group whose workers have knocked on 35,000 doors since May — told the station.

Robert DawkinsImage source: WCNC-TV video screenshot

One solution is that a vaccine shot can be had on the fly — right in the middle of a front-porch chat.

"Now that the health department is actually coming out with us, we miss that middle step, now," Dawkins explained to WCNC. "So now, 'Would you like to get a shot? Yes. We've got somebody right here on site.'"

The station said four people in the Southside Homes off Tryon Street got vaccinated on their front porches during the first few hours of the Doses to Doors program.

Image source: WCNC-TV video screenshot

"I haven't been vaccinated yet because I didn't have the convenience to get around to getting there," one man who got the shot told WCNC. "It's a little bit more flexibility for me now; I don't have to worry about in the next two weeks who got the disease or who I may be around who has it."

The man's COVID-19 shot was administered by Dr. Meg Sullivan, medical director for Mecklenburg County, the station said, adding that accessibility remains the primary "barrier" to a higher number of vaccinated people.

Former city councilwoman LaWana Mayfield helped with the outreach and added to WCNC that the Doses to Doors program "eliminates any excuse. You don't have to drive anywhere and sit in line, you don't have to have a vehicle, you don't need to Uber. They are right here."

According to the station, the county primarily is focused on neighborhoods with lower vaccination rates and communities that are hesitant and also have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

Image source: WCNC-TV video screenshot

"You'll see the majority of the crew is African American or Latinx because it's hard for people to find commonality in a subject if they don't see themselves in it," Dawkins added to WCNC. "It's not confrontational. It's not like you've got to get the shot, but it's our job to dispel those rumors."

Democrats are pressuring companies to censor text messages about Biden's pandemic response



Allies of President Joe Biden are pressuring phone companies to censor text messages that might carry disinformation about the administration's response to the pandemic.

The Biden administration is taking more aggressive actions against what they consider to be disinformation from critics on their right, according to the Politico report.

Left-wing groups, including the Democratic National Committee, are planning to also engage fact-checkers to fight back against dissenting voices.

The administration faced angry blowback after Biden said on Tuesday that the government would go "door-to-door" to encourage Americans to get vaccinated. He admitted that he was unable to fulfill his goal of vaccinating 70% of Americans by the Fourth of July.

In response, many on the right accused Biden of tyrannical government overreach but Dr. Anthony Fauci replied Sunday by accusing them of misinterpreting Biden's program.

"The big misinterpretation that Fox News or whomever else is saying is that they are essentially envisioning a bunch of federal workers knocking on your door, telling you you've got to do something that you don't want to do," said Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser.

"That's absolutely not the case, it's trusted messengers who are part of the community doing that — not government officials," he added. "So that's where I think the disconnect is."

White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said that the administration would be more vocal about calling out its critics.

"We are steadfastly committed to keeping politics out of the effort to get every American vaccinated so that we can save lives and help our economy further recover," Munoz said. "When we see deliberate efforts to spread misinformation, we view that as an impediment to the country's public health and will not shy away from calling that out."

The suggestion that Democrats would seek censorship on text messages also received immediate blowback on social media.

"Please tell me this is a typo," replied Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

"Yikes and Dear God….," responded former Trump ambassador Richard Grenell.

"The great war on information continues. Your mind is the prize," said another critic.

Natasha Korecki, one of the writers of the Politico report, responded to one critic by pointing out that it was private groups working with the companies, not the White House itself.

"Even then, there is no ability for groups to read individual texts aside from the ones they receive themselves," she added.

Here's more about the backlash against Biden's pandemic response:

Critics slam Biden's controversial door-to-door vaccine pushwww.youtube.com

Biden says the gov't will begin a door-to-door push for vaccination after failing to meet 4th of July goal



President Joe Biden said that his administration would implement a door-to-door effort to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated after failing to meet his goal for the Fourth of July.

Biden made the announcement in a speech on Tuesday outlining how the government would move forward to improve the nationwide vaccination rate.

"Now we need to go to community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and often times door to door— literally knocking on doors to get help to the remaining people, protected from the virus," said Biden.

"Look, equity, equality, it remains at the heart of our responsibility of ensuring the communities that have been hardest hit by the virus, have the information and the access to get vaccinated," he continued. "So, as we shift from these centralized mass vaccination sites, we're doing thousands of people a day, we're going to access close to your community, close to home, conveniently, and location you're already familiar with."

The Biden administration failed to meet their goal to vaccinate at least 70% of U.S. adults by the Fourth of July after new vaccinations slowed as more states reopened their economies.

About 47% of adults in the U.S. are fully vaccinated. Health officials say a 70%-90% vaccination rate is needed in order to fight the pandemic successfully, including the emerging variants.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated the door-to-door plan during Tuesday's media briefing.

"One, targeted community by community door-to-door outreach to get remaining Americans vaccinated by ensuring they have the information they need on how both safe and accessible the vaccine is," explained Psaki.

Some critics of Biden responded by comparing the door-to-door effort to the terror campaign against the Jews under the Nazi regime in Germany.

"Not only is this utterly ridiculous. It is totally un-Constitutional and 100% Nazi Germany," responded Pastor Greg Locke.

"Sending Joe Biden's Gestapo door-to-door to check up on non-vaccinated Americans is really a recipe for disaster," tweeted Lavern Spicer, a Florida Republican congressional candidate.

Here's more about the new Biden vaccination effort:

White House Pursuing Door-To-Door Outreach To Get Americans Vaccinatedwww.youtube.com