New Report Details Scrapped HHS Covid Vaccine Campaign Involving Santa Performers
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A new report from The Wall Street Journal details a public service campaign floated at the Department of Health and Human Services that has since been scrapped — a campaign that involved Santa Claus performers.
No, seriously.
The Journal reports that Michael Caputo — who has since left HHS — “wanted the Santa performers to promote the benefits of a Covid-19 vaccination and, in exchange, offered them early vaccine access ahead of the general public.”
” Those who perform as Mrs. Claus and elves also would have been included,” it adds.
The paper actually has audio of a call Caputo had with Ric Erwin, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas, in which he said, “If you and your colleagues are not essential workers, I don’t know what is.”
He talked with Erwin about a partnership where they would be some of the first to get vaccinated.
Erwin has since told the Journal the news it’s being scrapped “extremely disappointing” and that “this was our greatest hope for Christmas 2020, and now it looks like it won’t happen.”
The department said in a statement that Secretary Alex Azar “ordered a strategic review of this public health education campaign that will be led by top public health and communications experts to determine whether the campaign serves important public health purposes.”
You may have head about elements of the proposed HHS ad campaign to “defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery” in another report last month from Politico. That report noted how “senior administration officials have already recorded interviews with celebrities like actor Dennis Quaid and singer CeCe Winans, and the Health and Human Services Department also has pursued television host Dr. Mehmet Oz and musician Garth Brooks for roles in the campaign.”
Quaid, the Journal notes, posted a video to Instagram after that report dropped that he was “feeling some outrage and a lot of disappointment” that the interview he did with Dr. Anthony Fauci for the PSA was being interpreted as political.
