Pop star Olivia Rodrigo made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room on Wednesday afternoon to promote coronavirus vaccinations.
Rodrigo, who is meeting with President Biden and Anthony Fauci later Wednesday, stressed the importance of younger Americans who are eligible getting vaccinated in brief remarks at the start of the briefing with White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
“I am in awe of the work President Biden and Dr. Fauci have done and was happy to 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 given how many sites we have and how easy it is to find them at vaccines.gov,” she continued.
The visit by the 18-year-old singer to the White House represented the latest effort by the White House to reach out to younger Americans to get vaccinated. Rodrigo, Biden and Fauci are expected to record videos stressing the importance of vaccines.
The videos will be featured on Rodrigo’s social media channels — which boast more than 28 million followers — as well as the White House social media channels, a White House official said.
“We need to reach people, meet people where they are and speaking to young people, people under the age of 18, many of whom as we’ve seen across the country are huge Olivia Rodrigo fans, hearing from her that getting vaccinated is a way to keep yourself safe, a way to ensure you can see your friends, a way to ensure you can go to concerts, a way you can ensure you can live in a healthy life is an important part of what we’re trying to do here,” Psaki told reporters Wednesday.
Biden and Fauci also recently participated in a YouTube town hall and Vice President Harris met with social media influencers about vaccines as part of the administration’s outreach to younger Americans.
Younger Americans have proven a more difficult age group to reach with vaccines. White House officials said that the U.S. fell shy of Biden’s goal to vaccinate 70 percent of U.S. adults with at least one dose of vaccine because of the slower vaccine rates among Americans ages 18 to 27.
“Olivia Rodrigo is stopping by the White House today with a clear message to young people: get vaccinated. It’s the best way to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from the dangerous new COVID-19 variants. Head to http://vaccines.gov to find a clinic near you,” Biden tweeted shortly after Rodrigo arrived at the White House Wednesday morning.
-Updated 2:20 p.m.