With 42% of Americans saying they would not be willing to take an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, getting enough of the population to opt in is one more hurdle public health officials face. Some very prominent people are stepping up to help. Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton are all volunteering to have their vaccinations broadcast to the public as a message that the vaccine is both safe and a public duty.
Obama told SiriusXM host Joe Madison that if Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's good, that's enough for him. "People like Anthony Fauci, who I know, and I've worked with, I trust completely," Obama said. "So, if Anthony Fauci tells me this vaccine is safe, and can vaccinate, you know, immunize you from getting Covid, absolutely, I'm going to take it. […] I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science, and what I don't trust is getting Covid," he added. He noted that he was not going to jump the line, and would wait until the vaccine is available to the general public, after healthcare workers and vulnerable populations were covered.
Bush's chief of staff, Freddy Ford, told CNN that his boss had reached out to Fauci and to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator to offer his assistance. "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. "First, the vaccines need to be deemed safe and administered to the priority populations. Then, President Bush will get in line for his, and will gladly do so on camera." Clinton's press secretary Angel Urena told CNN "President Clinton will definitely take a vaccine as soon as available to him, based on the priorities determined by public health officials. And he will do it in a public setting if it will help urge all Americans to do the same."
Obama addressed the reality that there's real hesitancy for the vaccine, particularly among communities of color—who have also been most adversely affected by the pandemic. "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. 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," he said.
CNN also reached out to former President Jimmy Carter, but hadn’t heard back. If 96-year-old Jimmy Carter is well enough to appear on camera getting vaccinated, with his decades of service to public health—the man eradicated Guinea Worm Disease practically single-handedly—you can bet he will.