Obama calls for Americans to get vaccinated in tweet addressing misinformation

Former President Obama on Tuesday shared a message on Twitter encouraging Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine while addressing misinformation that has circulated about vaccinations.

"There is a lot of disinformation out there, but here’s the truth: You should get a COVID vaccine as soon as it's available to you. It could save your life—or a loved one’s," Obama wrote, while linking to a New York Times op-ed.

The article outlined the distrust within the Black community concerning the COVID-19 vaccine and shared the opinions of 60 National Academy of Medicine members who all encouraged Black Americans to get vaccinated.

"We feel compelled to make the case that all Black Americans should get vaccinated to protect themselves from a pandemic that has disproportionately killed them at a rate 1.5 times as high as white Americans in cases in which race is known — a rate that is most likely very conservative," the op-ed reads.

Obama, along with former Presidents George W. Bush and Clinton, offered in December to get his coronavirus vaccine publicly to enforce the idea that the inoculation is safe and to encourage other Americans to get the shot.

“People like Anthony Fauci, who I know, and I’ve worked with, I trust completely,” Obama told SiriusXM host Joe Madison at the time. “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.”

A recent survey conducted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases showed that skepticism concerning the vaccine in the Black community is shaped in part by age, with older Black people more likely to say they would get the shot. Thirty percent of the Black adults surveyed said they would not get vaccinated for COVID-19 and 20 percent stated that they were unsure.

Nearly 3 percent of the U.S. population has been completely vaccinated against the coronavirus and almost 20 percent have received their first dose, according to The New York Times.