President Joe Biden said Thursday it was hard to get Hispanics in America vaccinated for the coronavirus because of their fear of getting deported.
“It’s awful hard to get Latinx vaccinated as well,” Biden said. “Why? They’re worried that they’ll be vaccinated and deported.”
Biden spoke about the fears of different races in America causing them to be hesitant about getting the vaccine during a visit to Raleigh, North Carolina.
The president also spoke about black people in America who were hesitant about getting vaccinated.
“There’s a reason why it’s been harder to get African Americans initially to get vaccinated, because they’re used to being experimented on,” Biden said.
He again mistakenly referred to the “Tuskegee Airmen” as an example of government medical experimentation instead of the Tuskegee study on syphilis in black males which began in 1932.
(The Tuskegee Airmen was part of a flight training program that focused on proving the ability of black Americans to fight in combat.)
“People have memories. People have long memories,” Biden said.
The president also promised to invest more money in black and Hispanic communities, noting that they did not have fresh vegetables in their stores.
“Guess what, in most black communities across America, Hispanic communities, how many stores have fresh vegetables?” he asked. “How many stores have — I’ll go down the list. It matters.”
Biden also urged his supporters in the audience to get vaccinated.
“And as they say in my church, I’m preaching to the choir, I know,” he said. “But the television is recording this.”