Atlanta civil rights leaders get COVID-19 vaccine to ease public distrust

Nearly 30 civil and human rights leaders rolled up their sleeve to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

They got their first round of shots at Morehouse College Tuesday morning.

All of the civil and human rights leaders who got the Moderna vaccine Tuesday are at least 75-years-old and part of the current group eligible to get vaccinated. Some told us they wanted to get vaccinated after hearing so many of their peers express doubts.

"2020 was a devastating year only because we refused to anticipate it," ambassador Andrew Young explained.

Its devastating year for millions impacted by COVID-19.

But the leaders gathered at Morehouse School of Medicine healthcare clinic said it's particularity hard for minority communities.

We talked with several well-known leaders who hope this event will help end vaccine hesitancy.

"This pandemic is the most severe public health problem we have had in a century and it is affecting the Black community, the Hispanic community, and the Native American  community to a greater extent," Morehouse School of Medicine President Emeritus Dr. Louis Sullivan said.

But even as new cases continue in Georgia, with near record high hospitalizations and nearly 10,000 deaths, some people still refuse to roll up their sleeve.

"A lot of misunderstand. A lot of people think that shortcuts were taken. They were not taken. They developed things in parallel instead of in sequence," Dr. Sullivan explained after getting his shot.

RELATED: FDA calls idea of half-dosing Moderna COVID-19 vaccines ‘premature’

The trepidation for some stems from instances like the Tuskegee experiment in the 1930s, where hundreds of African-American men went untreated for syphilis for decades while doctors studied the effects of the disease.

"All my life, I've taken shots and I'm 88-years-old and none of them have done me any harm and they don't hurt," the ambassador said.

According to medical experts, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 95 percent effective.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms watched as her mother received her first dose of the vaccine.

The mayor said this is the next step toward healing and restoration.

"If I am entrusting in my mother to get the vaccination and Dr. Montgomery Rice bringing so many others in, it is safe and it is best for our community," she said.

Beginning this weekend, Morehouse School of Medicine President Valerie Montgomery Rice said they’ll offer drive-thru vaccinations on campus for those on who are eligible.

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