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(CNN) – Former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton volunteered to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on camera to promote public confidence in the safety of the vaccine once the La Food administration and the US Drug Administration authorizes it.
Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The three former presidents hope an awareness campaign to foster confidence in the vaccine’s safety and efficacy will be a powerful message as U.S. public health officials try to get the public to get vaccinated.
What Bush Says
Freddy Ford, Bush’s chief of staff, told CNN that the 43rd president had contacted Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the nation’s foremost expert on infectious diseases, and Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, to see how she could help promote the vaccine.
“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 encourage his fellow citizens to get vaccinated,” Ford said. on CNN. “First, vaccines must be considered safe and administered to priority populations. Then President Bush will line up to receive yours and will gladly do so in front of the camera. “
What Clinton says
Clinton’s press secretary told CNN Wednesday that the former president would also be willing to receive the vaccine in a public place to promote it.
“President Clinton will certainly get a vaccine as soon as it becomes available, based on priorities set by public health officials. And it will do so in a public context if that helps push all Americans to do the same, “said Angel Ureña.
What Obama says
Obama, in an interview with Joe Madison, host of SiriusXM, which aired 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 this vaccine is safe and that you can get vaccinated, immunized so you don’t get COVID, absolutely, I’ll take it.”
“I promise that when it’s available to people with less risk, I’ll take it,” he said.
“I can end up doing it on television or recording it, just so people know I trust science, and what I don’t trust is getting COVID,” he added.
CNN 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 other presidents to promote important causes. Bush’s father and mother, the late former President George Bush and Barbara Bush, took a commercial flight in the days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to promote public confidence in flying again. George Bush Sr. and Clinton worked together to raise funds for areas affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and for other charitable causes in the years following their presidency.
Obama now also aims to use his post-presidential stance for a public awareness campaign.
Vaccination hesitation
During the interview, Obama seemed to acknowledge the problem of vaccination hesitation, which some health experts fear may cause minorities, those most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, to avoid receiving a vaccine.
“I understand that you know historically, everything going back to the Tuskegee experiments, etc, because 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 many children dying from measles, smallpox and diseases that they 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.
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