'I could not have expected this in a million years': Wake teen to open for Biden during NC visit
DURHAM, N.C.67 (WTVD) -- A Wake County native will deliver a speech alongside Governor Cooper on Thursday during President Biden's visit to North Carolina to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations.
"When I found that and I got those details from the White House, I could not contain myself and what that meant for me," Ive said from her Durham home Wednesday.
ABC11 met Ive earlier this month at Durham's McDougald Terrace community; she was handing out masks, sunglasses and COVID-19 vaccine information as part of her "Bring Back Summer" campaign.
The Princeton student and Apex Friendship High School graduate partnered with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
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She'll be speaking along with Governor Cooper as President Biden visits Raleigh Thursday to try and drum up more support for the COVID-19 vaccine.
"I don't even know if validation is the right word because in my mind this is beyond a recognition of what I was able to do," Ive said, she handed out more than 50,000 masks during the six stops she made at public housing communities this summer. "It takes a lot of faith, a lot of trust in a person to tell you 'Oh, we'd like to try and introduce the leader of this country.'"
The White House said it's unlikely the country will reach President Biden's goal of 70% of people having one dose by July 4th. Instead, they've touted other successes.
"We're going to have close to 70% of people who have at least gotten one vaccine and that's amazing," said Dr. David Wohl, infectious diseases specialist at UNC Health who has been leading the COVID-19 fight across the health system. "You can't get 70% of people hardly to do anything in this country anymore."
The mass vaccination clinic at the Friday Center will soon shut down and UNC will shift its operation to home visits as well as outpatient clinics.
The Department of Health and Human Services said 55% of North Carolinians 18 and older and 81% of folks 65 and older in the state have had at least one dose of the vaccine.
They said they're using different strategies to ensure vaccines are easy and everywhere including Ive's 'Bringing Back Summer Campaign,' which also includes giving adult North Carolinians who've been vaccinated a chance at $1 million through the Summer Cash Drawing.
