Free beer, other new incentives for Biden's 'vaccine sprint'

Free beer is the latest White House-backed incentive to persuade Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden is announcing a “month of action” to urge more Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19 before the July 4 holiday, with an early summer sprint of incentives, including free beer, childcare and sports tickets to persuade Americans to roll up their sleeves. In a Wednesday afternoon address from the White House, Biden is to announce a slew of new steps to ease barriers to vaccinations and to make getting shots more appealing to those who haven't received doses. He is closing in on his goal to get 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by Independence Day — essential to his aim of returning the nation to a pre-pandemic sense of normalcy this summer. “We’re looking at June as a critical month in our path to normal and as a critical month in order to continue the progress we’re making in our vaccination campaign," Courtney Rowe, the director of strategic communications and engagement for the White House COVID-19 response team, told the AP. The White House said Biden’s “month of action” will continue to use public and private-sector partnerships to encourage Americans to get shots, mirroring the “whole of government” effort Biden deployed to make vaccines more widely available after he took office.