The newly designed McCafe cups will feature stickers with a “We Can Do This” slogan to help promote vaccine adherence. The slogan, which was created by the Department of Health and Human Services, is designed to build community support around the vaccine and urge people to sign up to get the shot so they can join millions of other Americans who have already built up immunity to the deadly virus.
According to a CNN report, the new McDonald’s coffee cup will appear in stores in July. The fast-food giant is expected to print a limited number of these special cups – only about 50 million will be released to the public.
McDonald’s partnership with the White House comes only days after it was announced that Lyft and Uber would be offering free rides to anyone using the rideshare services to travel to get the COVID-19 vaccination.
“We all want to protect ourselves and our loved ones and be together with our communities again,” said Genna Gent, McDonald’s USA vice president for global public policy and government relations, in a statement. “McDonald’s is excited to be doing our part for the people we serve, providing them with simple information that can help keep them safe.”
In a conversation with Fox Business, Gent confirmed that McDonald’s partnership with the White House would help the pro-vaccination message reach about 14,000 communities.
Current data indicates that about a third of the country’s population – of about 113 million Americans – are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. One hundred fifty-one million, or about 45.6 percent of the population, have received at least one dose of available COVID-19 vaccinations.
However, “herd immunity” has not yet been reached. According to infectious disease experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, about 70 to 85 percent of Americans need to get the vaccine for the country to finally defeat the virus and put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror.
Public and private organizations are working on creative ways to urge people to get the shot. One study found that a financial incentive might be what some hesitant people need to get the jab in their arms.
British and Australian readers of Daily Mail shared their disdain for McDonald’s new coffee cup design.
“Does Mc D believe its customers are so pathetic as to be influenced by the printing on a disposable beverage container?”
“I guess Mickie Ds is off the menu now,” to which another person replied, “Probably a good thing judging by the size of everyone over there.”