Dr. Anthony Fauci appealed to Black Americans who may be skeptical of taking the COVID-19 vaccine by highlighting one of the scientists behind the vaccine’s development.
While speaking at an event for the National Urban League, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert pointed out the history of racism in medical research and how it has fostered distrust with some in the Black community.
Fauci stressed the vaccine’s safety and efficacy and spotlighted Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a 34-year-old Black woman, who has been instrumental in the vaccine process.
“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.
Dr. Corbett is the lead scientist on vaccine research at the National Institute of Health and is part of the team that developed Moderna’s COVID vaccine.
“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,” Fauci added. “And that is just a fact.”
Moderna’s vaccine is expected to receive emergency use authorization by the FDA next week.
On Thursday, the FDA advisory committee voted to recommend the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for emergency use authorization.
Health and Human Services Director Alex Azar said he was confident the FDA would grant Pfizer’s vaccine emergency use authorization and Americans could feasibly start getting inoculated by Monday or Tuesday.
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