A White House official confirmed that pop star Olivia Rodrigo, who has dominated the pop music charts since the release of her debut album, Sour, in May 2021 and became a viral sensation with the release of “Drivers License,” will meet with President Joe Biden as part of a bid to help push young people to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
The event will be held tomorrow and that Rodrigo will also be meeting with Anthony Fauci, chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The official said the three of them will be “answering important questions young people have about getting vaccinated.”
Earlier, President Biden posted a young photo of himself on Instagram with the caption, “I know this young person would’ve gotten vaccinated, but we’ve got to get other young people protected as well. Who’s willing to help?”
Rodrigo replied, “I’m in! See you tomorrow at the White House!” The @POTUS account responded, “You bet!”
A White House official says this is for real and Olivia Rodrigo will be there tomorrow to meet with Biden and Fauci and record videos for young people about getting vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/f7Xl5FISCA
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 13, 2021
“The Biden–Harris Administration is making a continued push to get more young people vaccinated, including working with schools, pediatricians, summer camps, and leveraging social media and celebrity influencers,” the White House spokesperson said.
48% of Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to the most recent CDC data. However, many young adults have not gotten vaccinated, hampering the Biden administration’s efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible.
The “straightforward sales pitch for older people — a vaccine could very possibly save your life — does not always work on healthy 20-somethings who know they are less likely to face the severest outcomes of Covid,” The New York Times noted in a report late last month, adding that, “As public officials race to find ways to entice young adults to get vaccinated, interviews across the country suggest that no single fix, no easy solution, is likely to sway these holdouts… But pretty much everyone who was eager for a vaccine already has one, and public health officials now face an overlapping mix of inertia, fear, busy schedules and misinformation as they try — sometimes one person at a time — to cajole Gen Z into getting a shot.”