Former President Barack Obama, addressing what was probably one of the smallest online audiences of his career, urged Hispanic people and Black people to set aside justifiable concerns about their immigration status and historic exploitation in medical experiments to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
About 500 viewers were watching the Facebook Live town hall event as Mr. Obama joined former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, actress Eva Longoria and others to encourage more women and people of color to get their shots.
In response to a question about Hispanics, Mr. Obama said communities with “noncitizens” are sometimes “very nervous about interacting with government.”
“And let’s face it, for good reason,” Mr. Obama said. “We’ve seen it in the past, and even in the present. Folks [are] worried about what their legal status is, maybe affecting their willingness to seek out help. And that creates an environment in which it’s hard to run some of these [vaccination] campaigns.”
He said the “good news” is that the Biden administration is committed to making the vaccine available “to all people regardless of status.”
Mr. Obama said the “Made to Save” campaign, sponsored in part by the Department of Health and Human Services, is important because it’s targeting women, who make most of the health care decisions in their families.
“I can say this as a man and a man of color: traditionally, for a whole host of sociological reasons but also because I guess we’re not that bright, men don’t get checkups as often,” the former president said.
“They’re not trained by their fathers, oftentimes, to think about health care decisions,” Mr. Obama continued. “Sometimes you’re just lazy, or you have decided that it’s not ‘tough’ to get medical care. It’s often the influence of women that moves people and nudges people forward to make sure that they’re taking care of business. This is some business we got to take care of.”
Black and Hispanic adults are less likely than White adults to be vaccinated, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data. About 39% of White adults had received at least one vaccine dose by May 3, compared with 27% of Hispanic adults and 25% of Black adults, the foundation found.
Mr. Obama cited tragic examples of past medical experimentation on Black people and racial subjugation, citing the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, as a lingering reason for vaccine hesitancy in the Black community.
“This is all real,” Mr. Obama said. “This gets passed on from generation to generation — suspicion, hesitancy, concern about interactions with the medical community.”
Made to Save is a national public education campaign aiming to build trust in the COVID-19 vaccines. It’s part of Civic Nation, which is chaired by Ms. Jarrett.
Mr. Obama said he, former first lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters all have been vaccinated. He said he developed flu-like symptoms on the day after his second dose with the Pfizer vaccine, but those symptoms quickly subsided.
The former president, who kept a relatively low profile during the Trump administration, is gaining some unflattering attention in a new book out this week titled “Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaign to Defeat Trump,” by journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere.
The book says that Mr. Obama believes he could have won had he been able to run for a third term in 2016, but former aides privately described him as having abandoned the Democratic Party by the time he left office.
“The numbers are hard to ignore: during his eight years in office, Obama oversaw a net loss of 947 state legislative seats, 63 House seats, 11 senators, and 13 governors,” the author writes.
In the book, Mr. Dovere also reveals that Mr. Obama told foundation donors that Mr. Trump was “a madman,” “a racist, sexist pig” and a “corrupt mother———.”
During the vaccination town hall event Monday, Mr. Obama said it’s important for people “to remind ourselves what life was like and the world like before vaccinations,” citing polio and smallpox as examples.
He said former President Franklin Roosevelt lost the use of his legs from polio “despite coming from a very wealthy family.”
“We live longer, healthier lives because of these scientific advances. … but only if we take advantage of it,” Mr. Obama said. He urged people to get vaccinated “so more of us can feel protected.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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