Obama promises to get vaccinated against the coronavirus 0:32
(CNN) -
Former United States Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton volunteered to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in front of the cameras to promote public confidence in the safety of the vaccine once authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The three former presidents hope that an awareness campaign to promote confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine will be a powerful message as US public health officials try to convince the public to get vaccinated.
What Bush says
Freddy Ford, Bush's chief of staff, told CNN that the 43rd president had reached out to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the nation's leading infectious disease expert, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, to see how she could help promote the vaccine.
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"A few weeks ago, President Bush asked me to let Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx know that, when the time is right, he wants to do what he can to help encourage his fellow citizens to get vaccinated," Ford said. to CNN.
“First, vaccines must be considered safe and administered to priority populations.
Then President Bush will get in line to receive yours and will gladly do so in front of the camera. "
What Clinton says
Clinton's press secretary told CNN on Wednesday that the former president would also be willing to receive the vaccine in a public place to promote it.
“President Clinton will definitely take a vaccine as soon as it is available to him, based on priorities determined by public health officials.
And he will do it in a public setting if that helps to urge all Americans to do the same, ”said Angel Ureña.
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What Obama says
Obama, in an interview with SiriusXM host Joe Madison, to air Thursday, said that if Fauci says a coronavirus vaccine is safe, he believes him.
"I completely trust people like Anthony Fauci, who I know and have worked with," Obama said.
"So if Anthony Fauci tells me that this vaccine is safe and you can get vaccinated, immunized so that you don't get COVID, I will absolutely take it."
"I promise that when it is available to people with less risk, I will take it," he said.
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"I can end up doing it on television or recording it, just so that people know that I trust science, and what I do not trust is getting COVID," he added.
CNN has contacted representatives of former President Jimmy Carter to see if he, too, would be willing to take the vaccine publicly.
The Bush family has a history of joining with other presidents to advance important causes.
Bush's father and mother, the late former President George Bush and Barbara Bush, took a commercial flight in the days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to promote public confidence in flying again.
George Bush Sr. and Clinton worked together to raise funds for areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and for other charitable causes in the years after their presidencies.
Obama now also aims to use his post-presidency position for a public awareness campaign.
Vaccination hesitation
During the interview, Obama appeared to acknowledge the problem of vaccine hesitancy, which some health experts worry could cause minorities, who have been hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, avoid receiving a vaccine.
“I understand that you know historically, everything going back to the Tuskegee experiments, etc., why the African American community would have some skepticism.
But the fact is, vaccines are the reason we don't have polio anymore, the reason we don't have a lot of children dying from measles and smallpox and diseases that used to decimate entire populations and communities, "he said.
Previous studies have revealed that minority communities have higher death rates from COVID-19, are more exposed, and are more vulnerable in part due to pre-existing conditions.
Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush
