“Over 50% of all cases and almost half of all deaths are in persons of African American, Latino or Hispanic background, American Indian and Pacific Islanders,” said Dr. Eliseo Pérez-Stable.
The interfaith “vaccine confidence” event targeted in particular Black, Latino and other communities of color, with the aim of overcoming reluctance among populations disproportionately hit by a pandemic that has killed more than a half-million people in the country. Following a moment of prayer for Covid-19 victims, the socially distanced attendees applauded when the Rev. Patricia Hailes Fears from Fellowship Baptist Church pulled back the upper arm of her Roman collar shirt and became the first one present to be inoculated.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious-disease scientist and the public face of the nation’s fight against Covid-19, said that the vaccines have been extensively tested and are trustworthy. He also sought to debunk some myths and misperceptions around the vaccines, such as that they supposedly could alter a person’s DNA or be a vehicle for implanting microchips for surveillance.
Fauci has estimated that somewhere between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population needs to get inoculated to stop the scourge in the country.