WhatsApp partners with the White House to reach Latinx audience

(KION) You can now get CDC information from your text messaging apps. This week, WhatsApp released a messaging bot with the White House, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide vaccine information to Spanish speakers.

Users can message the CDC number +1 (833) 636-1122 on their app and receive information about the nearest vaccination locations, arrange a free ride to get vaccinated and get answers to frequently asked questions from the CDC’s helpline.

This initiative is part of the Biden Administration’s National Month of Action to make it easier for communities to get vaccinated. California Hispanics account for 63% of COVID-19 cases, but only 29% of California vaccinations.

The app received some backlash earlier this year for its recent privacy policy update that would potentially be collecting user metadata, even though Facebook said messages will still be end-to-end encrypted. Despite that, 32 million WhatsApp users in the United States are Latino according to eMarketer.