washington thrown offstride to reach its covid19 vaccination goal the biden administration is sending alist officials across the country devising ads for niche markets and enlisting community organizers to persuade unvaccinated people to get a shotthe strategy has the trappings of a political campaign complete with data crunching to identify groups that can be won overbut the message is about public health not ideology the focus is a group health officials term the movable middle some 55 million unvaccinated adults seen as persuadable many of them under 30were not just going to do the mass vaccination sites said health and human services secretary xavier becerra its door to door its mobile clinics were doing vaccinations at church the pta meeting the barber shop the grocery storeofficials have seized on a compelling new talking point courtesy of the coronavirus the potent delta variant that has ravaged india is spreading here now accounting for about 1 in 5 virus samples genetically decoded in the us the more transmissible mutation has gained a foothold in mountain west and heartland states many of those infected are young and unvaccinatedthe white house has lent its top names to the vaccine pushpresident joe biden visited a mobile vaccination site in raleigh north carolina on thursday earlier in the day first lady jill biden held the hand of a woman at a drivethru vaccination site in kissimmee floridadoug emhoff the husband of vice president kamala harris has racked up thousands of frequent flyer miles visiting at least 18 or 19 states by his countthe administration also has recruited celebrities and athletes including country music star brad paisley and the tampa bay lightning hockey team it has teamed up with twitch and riot games to reach online gamers and with panera and chipotle to offer free food to those getting a shotthe message as surgeon general vivek murthy put it if you are vaccinated you are protected if you are not the threat of variants is real and growingits unclear how well the levers of persuasion are functioning vaccination rates have dropped below 1 million a day and theres no sign yet of a turnaround the administration has acknowledged that it will fall short of its goal of having 70 of adults vaccinated by july fourthat this point about 170 million american adults have received at least one vaccine dose representing roughly twothirds of those 18 and older an associated press analysis suggests that bidens selfimposed goal may not be reached until late july at current rates of vaccinationanalysts at hhs have developed a rough sketch of those in the movable middle they tend to be younger mainly 1829 most are not college educated and political independents predominate black and latino adults are more likely to fall in this category than people of other backgroundsit can be a hard sell after jill bidens visit to mississippi earlier in the week gulf coast resident sherie bardwell was unimpressed she said bidens comment that vaccines might feel like a