Obama, Bush, Clinton push safety of vaccine
Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have said they are willing to get a coronavirus vaccine to prove the treatment is safe and effective. They may even film themselves getting injected.
The announcement comes as large swaths of the American public have expressed concerns about taking a potential coronavirus vaccine, despite early results from several vaccine trials showing them to be highly effective at stopping COVID-19.
“I promise you that when it’s been made for people who are less at risk, I will be taking it,” Obama said on an episode of SiriusXM’s “The Joe Madison Show.” Some audio of Obama’s comments were released on YouTube Wednesday.
“I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science,” Obama said. “What I don’t trust is getting COVID.”
The office of former President George W. Bush confirmed to CNN that he would be willing to get a vaccine to boost public trust as well.
“President Clinton will definitely take a vaccine as soon as available to him, based on the priorities determined by public health officials. And he will do it in a public setting if it will help urge all Americans to do the same,” Angel Ureña, a spokesman for Clinton, told USA TODAY.
A November Gallup poll found 58% of Americans are willing to receive a coronavirus vaccine, an increase from early in the year when hesitancy about vaccines was widespread.
Public health experts say at least 60% to 70% of the population needs to take a vaccine to achieve “herd immunity,” a public health term for when a critical mass of the public is inoculated against a given infectious disease.
The resistance against vaccines is especially high among communities of color, with Black Americans expressing the most doubts about taking a vaccine in polls.
“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,” Obama said in his SiriusXM interview.
“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,” the former president said.
Federal regulators are expected to confirm several of the most promising vaccines in the coming weeks, with states and biopharmaceutical companies already planning on mass distribution of vaccines throughout the country during the early months of next year.