White House Blasts Door-to-door Vaccination Critics 'Doing Disservice' to Country

The White House has slammed door-to-door vaccination detractors, saying they do "a disservice to the country."

Jeffrey Zients, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, on Thursday commented about ongoing efforts of President Joe Biden's administrations to vaccinate more Americans.

During the White House coronavirus briefing, Zients said: "The best people to talk about vaccinations, those who have questions, are local trusted messengers. Doctors, faith leaders, community leaders. So as part of our efforts, trusted messengers may go door-to-door."

Zients's remarks come after President Biden said vaccinators needed to go "door-to-door-literally knocking on doors - to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus."

President Biden was eager for more Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine after his administration failed to get 70 percent of Americans jabbed with at least one dose by July 4.

Zients continued: "We've seen movement by going person-by-person, community-by-community. As the president said, we will do this by going community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, person by person.

"By partnering with local leaders, governors, mayors, doctors, school administrators, employers, faith leaders and community organizers, leaders that people know and trust. One shot at the time, one person at the time."

But, Zients then took aim at people and groups who he said had been trying to "mischaracterize" the vaccination effort.

He added: "For those individuals, organizations that are feeding misinformation and trying to mischaracterize this type of trusted messenger work, I believe you are doing a disservice to the country."

Republicans have been among the loudest critics of the door-to-door efforts of the Biden administration.

Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) spoke out over the effort and expressed his concern that it could be used to build a framework that could eventually lead to guns and Bibles being taken away.

He said earlier this month: "The thing about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing - and then think about what those mechanisms could be used for. They could go door-to-door to take your guns. They could then go door-to-door to take your Bibles."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was criticized by Jewish groups after tweeting: "People have a choice, they don't need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can't force people to be part of the human experiment."

The CDC has said COVID-19 vaccines are "safe and effective" and recommends people get jabbed "as soon as you can."

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.