Former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton volunteer to take coronavirus vaccine on camera

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have volunteered to get vaccinated for coronavirus on television to promote the safety of the vaccine once the Food and Drug Administration authorizes one.

An FDA panel of outside advisers is scheduled to meet Dec. 10 to discuss whether to recommend emergency use authorization of a vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. with German partner BioNTech, shown to be 95% effective at preventing illness. U.S. health officials predict the first inoculations could start days or weeks later.

“I promise you that when it’s been made for people who are less at risk, I will be taking it,” Obama said Wednesday on “The Joe Madison Show” on SiriusXM. “I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science. What I don’t trust is getting covid.”

Former Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama are willing to take the coronavirus vaccine live on TV to prove that it’s safe. @JohnAvlon pic.twitter.com/W1bnMoZOKv

— CNN Early Start (@EarlyStart) December 3, 2020

Many Americans claim they will not agree to be vaccinated against covid-19. A poll by Gallup, released in mid-November, showed that 42% of the country would not accept the vaccine even if it was “available right now at no cost.”

Freddy Ford, Bush’s chief of staff, told CNN the former president is also willing to receive the vaccine on camera.

“A few weeks ago, President Bush asked me to let Dr. (Anthony) Fauci and Dr. (Deborah) Birx know that, when the time is right, he wants to do what he can to help encourage his fellow citizens to get vaccinated,” Ford said.

COVID LATEST: https://t.co/qOtlFDYi1V

- U.S. reaches highest recorded death toll on a single day.
- Presidents Bush and Clinton join Pres. Obama by offering to get vaccinated in front of cameras.
- Dr. Fauci predicts vaccines for older kids could be available by spring. pic.twitter.com/m7GcOszVJD

— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2020

Earlier this week, a CDC panel voted 13-1 to allow health care workers and nursing home residents to be first to receive approved vaccinations. That encompasses about 24 million people out of a U.S. population of almost 330 million.

President Clinton would “definitely” be willing to get a vaccine, as soon as one is “available to him, based on the priorities determined by public health officials,” spokesman Angel Ureña said Thursday.

“And he will do it in a public setting if it will help urge all Americans to do the same,” Ureña added.

Nationwide the coronavirus is blamed for more than 275,000 deaths and 14 million confirmed infections.

The United States recorded a record 3,157 deaths on Wednesday alone, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.