ABC’s Raddatz Presses WH Official on Vaccine Hesitancy as New Poll Shows 74% of Unvaccinated People Unlikely to Get the Shot

President Joe Biden has talked in the past few months about July 4th as a significant marker of America’s “independence from this virus.”

Independence Day is finally upon us, and significant progress in the covid-19 vaccination rollout has been made, but the U.S. did not hit the goal the president set of getting 70 percent of adults at least one dose by July 4th. As of this posting, the CDC records 67 percent of all adults with one dose, and 58.1 percent fully vaccinated.

One of the big obstacles is a concerning level of vaccine hesitancy and outright opposition, especially with the spread of the Delta variant. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 74 percent of people not already vaccinated are unlikely to get it. 23 percent said they “probably” wouldn’t get it, while 52 percent said they “definitely” wouldn’t. You can read the full poll results here.

ABC News’ Martha Raddatz spoke with White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients on Sunday and said, “The administration clearly has much to be proud of this July 4th, but you did miss that goal, largely because of young people.”

“What was the miscalculation there?” she asked.

Zients touted the great progress thus far before saying, “Younger people — particularly those in their 20s — have felt less vulnerable to the disease, and therefore less eager to get shots.”

He said there are “hundreds of thousands of young people vaccinated each week” but vaccinations for them and all age groups need to continue.

Raddatz pointed to states “falling way behind” in vaccinations and asked if the current level of vaccine hesitancy could mean the virus “will continue to be with us indefinitely.”

“If you are not vaccinated, you are vulnerable. You’re not protected,” Zients said, noting places with lower vaccination rates are seeing increases in cases.

As he talked about how easy it is for people to get vaccines, Raddatz jumped in and asked, “What does it mean for the nation if we have all these unvaccinated people who say they’re just not going to get it?”

Zients responded that the White House is optimistic more people will get vaccinated.

You can watch above, via ABC.