Former President Barack Obama is encouraging minority communities to get vaccinated, and he’s getting help from basketball legends Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. The trio recorded a pep talk of sorts where Obama said:
“Now, as the vaccine becomes more available, I want to make sure that our communities, particularly ones, African-American, Latino, as well as young people understand this will save lives and allow people to get their lives back to normal.”
O’Neal said he was fully vaccinated and Barkley said he was awaiting his second vaccine. Check out the conversation below.
The push comes as the vaccine gap between races is widening. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports:
Since March 1, the share of the population who has received a COVID-19 vaccine has increased across racial/ethnic groups, but disparities are persisting and gaps between vaccination rates for White people compared to Hispanic and Black people have widened
Together, these data raise concerns about racial disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations. Preventing such disparities will be important to mitigate the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic for people of color, prevent widening disparities going forward, and achieve broad population immunity.
But a Kaiser poll also found that Black adults saw the largest increase in vaccine enthusiasm of any groups from December to March.
