White House Forum Urges 'Vaccine Confidence' as U.S. Covid Deaths Top 500,000

The White House COVID Task Force remains focused on vaccines as the death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 Monday.

The lives lost, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, are about equal to the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and greater than that of Miami; Raleigh, North Carolina; or Omaha, Nebraska.

And despite the rollout of vaccines since mid-December, a closely watched model from the University of Washington projects more than 589,000 dead by June 1.

"To continue to inform our efforts around vaccine confidence over the next two weeks, the White House, along with CDC and HHS, will host a series of listening sessions with key stakeholder groups," said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients.

"These conversations will focus on how to strengthen vaccine confidence and how to eliminate barriers that underserved communities are facing to vaccinations."

The U.S. toll is by far the highest reported in the world, and the true numbers are thought to be significantly greater, in part because of the many cases that were overlooked, especially early in the outbreak.

Average daily deaths and cases have plummeted in the past few weeks, but experts warn that dangerous variants could cause the trend to reverse itself.

Some experts say not enough Americans have been inoculated yet for the vaccine to be making much of a difference.

Vaccine rollout since the Biden administration has taken over has faced shortages across the country, weather affecting deliveries and some reluctance from groups who don't trust the information given so far in getting the shots.

"I will tell you that people are interested in taking the vaccine in large numbers for the same reason people are interested in taking the vaccine for MMR and for the flu because they want to live," said Zients.

"They don't want to be sick and they don't want to die. And that is a very important benefit that people don't often talk about quite as much. But the public, we believe, clearly understands."

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