Olivia Rodrigo visits White House to urge young people to get COVID vaccination
Singer Olivia Rodrigo visited the White House on Wednesday to lend some pop star power to efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration to boost COVID vaccination rates among young people.
Rodrigo, whose debut album “Sour” claimed the No. 1 spot in the musical charts this week, opened the White House press briefing with comments to reporters from behind the podium and then left without taking questions.
Rodrigo, 18, later met with the president and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser.
Her visit was part of a broader effort by the administration aimed at increasing COVID-19 vaccinations as the delta variant spreads rapidly throughout large swaths of the country.
“I’m in awe of the work President Biden and Dr. Fauci have done and was happy to help lend my support to this important initiative,” Rodrigo said. “It’s important to have conversations with friends and family members, encouraging all communities to get vaccinated and actually get to a vaccination site, which you can do more easily than ever before.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki pointed to the lower vaccination rates among young people when asked later in the briefing about the variation in vaccination rates between states.
“We also recognize looking at the data that there are portions of the population, demographics, including people under the age of 27, who have a much lower vaccination rate. Hence we are quite focused on communicating directly with those people — hence our special guest today — about why it’s important to get vaccinated,” Psaki said.
Only 41.8% of people in the United States between the ages of 18 and 24 have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate drops to 37.5% for youths between 16 and 17 and 25.3% for youths between 12 and 15.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Olivia Rodrigo visits White House to urge young people to get COVID vaccination."
