Former President Barack Obama participated in a Tik Tok video to encourage young people to get vaccinated for the Chinese coronavirus.
In a Tik Tok posted by Yahoo! News, the former president urged young Americans to get vaccinated, branding vaccines as “safe,” “effective,” and “free.”
“Hi everybody. It’s Barack. Now that every American over the age of 16 is eligible to get the vaccine, I want to talk about you getting yours,” he said.
“The vaccine is safe. It’s effective. It’s free. I got one. Michelle got one. People you know got one. And now, you can get one too,” he said, pitching it as the “only way we’re going to get back to all the things we love — from safely spending time with grandparents to going to concerts and watching live sports.”
“So get the vaccine as soon as you can,” Obama added.
Watch:
@yahoonewsObama to the youth in new PSA: Get your COVID-19 vaccine. ##news ##politics ##obama ##covid19 ##vaccine ##psa ##health ##covidvaccine ##yahoonews
While the vaccination effort is well underway in the United States — with over 104 million Americans being “fully vaccinated,” per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) May 2 data — U.S. health officials have shown no signs of the country returning to pre-pandemic normalcy. Even those who are fully vaccinated are recommended to wear masks in certain social settings and to avoid large gatherings, per the CDC’s most recent guidance released this week.
A well-circulated CDC chart also shows fully vaccinated people wearing masks for most basic activities– from going to the hair salon to riding on public transport — seemingly giving them little edge over unvaccinated individuals in terms of mask liberation.