Obama volunteers to take COVID-19 vaccine to add confidence on its safety [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• With a goal to put confidence in the COVD-19 vaccine’s safety, former president Barack Obama said on Wednesday that he would take a dose and have it documented.
• Obama’s comments came following numerous polls showing that Americans were reluctant in taking the vaccine.
• The public’s hesitation comes from the continuous surge of the coronavirus as well as President Donald Trump’s move to expedite the vaccine’s approval.

On Wednesday, former President Barack Obama announced that he would take a COVID-19 vaccine and document it once it becomes so that the Americans can gain more trust about the vaccine’s safety.

During his interview with The Joe Madison Show, Obama told SiriusXM: “I will be taking it, and I may take it on TV or have it filmed so people know that I trust this science,” adding that what he does not “trust is getting COVID.”

The former Democratic leader’s remarks came after various polls in the US showed that Americans were doubtful about getting the vaccine. Specifically, people of color, who were severely hit with the disease, were not interested, a recent Gallup poll said. This suggests that the nation’s vaccination schemes could be at risk of being jeopardized.

Obama also cited the Tuskegee study during the interview. It was a research about Black men who have syphilis were not given treatment for a long period of time despite penicillin was out in the market during the 1940s. It was done so that officials could further study the disease’s long-term effects.

“I understand, historically, everything dating back all the way to the Tuskegee experiments and so forth, why the African American community would have some skepticism,” the former president said. 

“But the fact of the matter is, is that vaccines are why we don’t have polio anymore. And they’re the reason why we don’t have a whole bunch of kids dying from measles and smallpox and diseases that used to decimate entire populations and communities.”

On Tuesday, the panel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 13-1 in favor of giving health care workers and long-term care facility US residents the doses of COVID-19 vaccine once the approval for usage is official.

If Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, would say that the vaccine is safe, the former Commander-in-chief said that he would take it. Obama expects that the first doses would be administered to the most vulnerable group.

“If you are in that category, if you are elderly, if you’ve got a preexisting condition, if you’re a frontline worker, if you’re a medical worker, if you are in a grocery store, if you’re a first responder, you should take that vaccine,” he said.

In the coming weeks, states are anticipating to lead the vaccine distribution once the FDA grants an emergency clearance to drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna.

According to health experts, the growing fears from the continuous virus outbreak and the fact that President Donald Trump is pushing regulators to immediately authorize the use of vaccines were the reasons for the public’s apprehension.

Source: CNBC.com