Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton all said they are willing to receive COVID-19 vaccinations on television to increase public trust in the vaccines, NPR reported.
Mr. Obama said he would receive a vaccine if Anthony Fauci, MD, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says it is safe and effective.
"I promise you that when it's been made for people who are less at risk, I will be taking it. I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science," he said in an interview with SiriusXM.
Representatives for Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton also said the former presidents are willing to televise their vaccinations, NPR reported. Mr. Bush has reached out to Dr. Fauci and Deborah Birx, MD, to see how he can help promote a vaccine.
Mr. Obama also discussed in his interview with SiriusXM hesitancy in Black communities to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
"I understand you know 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, according to NPR. "But the fact of the matter is, is that vaccines are why we don't have polio anymore, 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."