Former President Barack Obama speaks in support of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden during a drive-in rally at the Florida International University on November 02, 2020 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he will take a coronavirus vaccine once one is available and may film it to build confidence in the U.S. about vaccine safety.
“I will be taking it and I may take it on TV or have it filmed so people know that I trust this science,” he told SiriusXM’s “The Joe Madison Show” during an interview that is scheduled to air in full Thursday. “What I don’t trust is getting Covid.”
Obama’s comment came as numerous polls find many Americans are skeptical about getting a Covid-19 vaccine, potentially jeopardizing U.S. vaccination efforts to control the pandemic, which has now taken at least 1.48 million lives worldwide. People of color, which have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, in particular, appear to be less eager to take it, according to a recent Gallup poll.
Medical experts blame escalated fears due to the pandemic as well as concerns that President Donald Trump is pressing regulators to approve a vaccine before it is ready for the skepticism.
To be sure, the reluctance or refusal to get vaccinated has been a growing problem in the U.S. long before the pandemic started. Medical experts point to a long-debunked study published by British researchers in 1998 linking measles vaccines to autism in children. That only emboldened anti-vaxxers, a group of activists known for their opposition to vaccinations and spreading misinformation, they said.
During the interview, Obama also mentioned the Tuskegee study, in which Black men with syphilis were not offered treatment for decades after penicillin became available in the 1940s, so that government researchers could study the long-term effects of the disease.
“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,” he 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.”
States expect to distribute a Covid vaccine in as little as two weeks. Moderna and Pfizer late last month requested emergency clearances from the FDA for their Covid-19 vaccines. The reviews by the FDA are expected to take a few weeks, and the agency has scheduled a meeting for Dec. 10 to discuss Pfizer’s request for authorization.
On Tuesday, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel voted 13-1 to give health-care workers and long-term care facility residents in the U.S. the first coronavirus vaccine doses once it’s cleared for public use.
Obama said he would take a vaccine if Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said it was safe. Obama said he anticipates that the vaccine will be first made available to those most a risk. He urged them to get a vaccine.
“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.