Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, said in Chicago Wednesday that as he’s traveled the country in recent months to talk up vaccination efforts he hasn’t once heard people talk about getting inoculated in political terms.
The 56-year-old former entertainment attorney’s stop in Chicago is part of the White House’s “We Can Do This” vaccination bus tour aimed at jump-starting falling vaccine rates. Emhoff made two stops during his brief visit to the city — one at an Englewood barbershop and another at a West Englewood health clinic. Both are located in ZIP codes with some of the lowest rates of inoculation in the city.
“This is not political — this is not a political issue. Vaccines are about us, it’s about our country,” he told health care workers and volunteers and an otherwise friendly crowd at a rally outside Esperanza Health Center Southwest. In the audience clapping at his remarks was fellow Democrat and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton along with Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady as well as Chicago’s first lady, Amy Eshleman.
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff jokes with a teen during a vaccination at an Esperanza Health Center site in the Englewood neighborhood as part of the "We Can Do This" vaccination awareness bus tour on June 23, 2021. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Emhoff doubled down on that message during a roundtable discussion inside the health clinic with community and health care workers about overcoming vaccine hesitancy, where he talked about traveling the country during his wife’s first few months in office. “This is not political. Nobody’s talking about Republican (or) Democrat — not once where I’ve been.”
In what was a carefully orchestrated visit, Emhoff first visited the barbershop, then traveled to the health center for the roundtable discussion, rally and a tour of the clinic. Handlers explained every move down to his plan to watch a health clinic worker give someone a COVID-19 shot. Emhoff ended up watching two vaccinations, encouraging Kendrick Guadarrama, 12, and sister Layla Guadarrama, 13, as they were about to get their shots. Emhoff told the children at one point, “I don’t love a needle” but said he braved it and that he didn’t feel a thing.
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Earlier this month, President Joe Biden tapped Harris to launch the vaccination bus tour. While Harris has been traveling across portions of the South where vaccination rates are low, Emhoff and first lady Jill Biden have been assigned to travel to areas of the Midwest. By and large, Emhoff said Wednesday, he was on a listening tour to hear what health, community and neighborhood business leaders had to say about their efforts to boost vaccinations.
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“I’ve been doing this second gentleman job for five-plus months and I spend most of my time on the road. I’ve been to 18 or 19 states and have held numerous listening sessions on COVID, other issues, small business, you name it” and it’s important to talk with those on the front lines of these efforts to craft a larger and more streamlined approach, he said during the roundtable discussion.
The Biden administration declared June a “national month of action,” a multipronged effort to reach the president’s goal of getting 70% of adults partially vaccinated — meaning at least a single shot — by the Fourth of July. Some of the efforts include the bus tour to raise awareness, but also giveaways such as airline, cruise and baseball tickets. The White House also launched an effort to recruit 1,000 barbershops and salons across the U.S. to help with the vaccination efforts, whether through free services for the vaccinated or offering shots on the spot.
Emhoff’s first stop in Chicago was at Englewood’s It’s Official Barbershop where he talked with owner Channal Coleman about the business’s vaccination efforts in Chicago. He was joined by Dr. Cameron Webb, a White House senior policy adviser for COVID-19 equity, as well as U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat.
Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff chats with Donald Coleman at It's Official Barber Shop in the Englewood neighborhood as part of the "We Can Do This" vaccination bus tour on June 23, 2021. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Coleman, who at one point worked in medicine, told Emhoff, “Working in the nursing field, we hear that all the time, ‘I don’t want to get vaccinated … it’s going to give me COVID.’”
Emhoff went on to ask, “What works? What are you telling them that works to help them make (a decision)?”
Coleman said it’s important to educate hesitant customers about the vaccine, letting them know she trusts science enough that she’s been vaccinated and that, historically, vaccines have staved off viruses such as the flu.
Before Emhoff posed for photos at the shop, he chatted up one customer who quickly changed the subject to the vice president; in April, Harris made her first official visit to Chicago where she touted efforts to expand access to shots and toured a vaccination site run by the Chicago Federation of Labor for union workers.
“Tell Kamala I love her,” the barbershop customer told Emhoff.
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He replied with a laugh: “You know I love her — we have that in common.”
Lisa Donovan is the host of The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
ldonovan@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @byldonovan
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