Fauci Assures African Americans On COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr Anthony Fauci allays fears of African-Americans on COVID-19 vaccine

U.S. top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci has assured the African-American community regarding the safety of the recently authorised COVID-19 vaccines.

“So, the first thing you might want to say to my African-American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine was developed by an African-American woman. And that is just a fact.”

He was speaking in reference to a vaccine that will be released by Moderna.

“The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels  -94 to 95 per cent efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100 per cent efficacy against a serious disease that is shown to be clearly safe.

“That vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research centre by a team of scientists led by Dr Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett.”

Corbett who is the lead scientist for the National Institutes of Health’s coronavirus vaccine research said that those who had hesitancy against the vaccine had a right to ask questions.

“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,” Corbett told CNN.

“Trust, especially when it has been stripped from people, has to be rebuilt in a brick-by-brick fashion.

So, what I say to people first 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,” he added.

To date, more than 70.1 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 1.59 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

U.S remains the worst-hit nation, with more than 15.8 million confirmed cases and over 294,000 fatalities.

ANI/NAN