Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious disease, this week attempted to address concerns that people of color, particularly those in the Black community, have about the safety of a coronavirus vaccine.
Fauci, during an event for the National Urban League on Tuesday, acknowledged that communities of color have historically been used for experimentation by the government, and that he understands the concerns that people in the community have about a potential coronavirus vaccine.
''The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels — 94 to 95 percent efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100 percent efficacy against serious disease that are shown to be clearly safe — that vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research center by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett,'' Fauci said, according to CNN.
''So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman. And that is just a fact," he added, referring to the Moderna vaccine, according to The Root.
Corbett, the lead scientist on coronavirus vaccine research for the National Institutes of Health, noted on a recent CNN podcast that ''I would say to people who are vaccine-hesitant that you’ve earned the right to ask the questions that you have around these vaccines and this vaccine development process.''
She noted, ''Trust, especially when it has been stripped from people, has to be rebuilt in a brick-by-brick fashion. And so, what I say to people firstly is that I empathize, and then secondly is that I’m going to do my part in laying those bricks. And I think that if everyone on our side, as physicians and scientists, went about it that way, then the trust would start to be rebuilt.''
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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