Samuel L. Jackson has officially been vaccinated.
The actor took a photo of himself after receiving the vaccine and posted it to his Instagram account. He recently rocked a facemask, glasses, and a baseball cap displaying the California arena where he took his shot in the background.
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“At The Forum getting that 1st jab!! #lookoutworldbouttobustbackout#vaccinespring#gogitchyoursigotmine,” wrote Jackson. It is unclear which brand of the vaccine took whether it was produced by Pfizer or Moderna but both require a second dose weeks after the first.
According to CBS Los Angeles, residents 65 and older qualify to be vaccinated at The Forum, an indoor arena in Inglewood. But similar to other locations around the country the arena is running out of doses so it could take a while for Jackson, 72, and others to get a round two.
“We don’t know when the supply will be increasing,” said Dr. Erica Pan to the outlet. “In a huge state of 40 million people, we’re only getting 400,000 to 500,000 doses a week. So it’s gonna take us, we’re estimating, anywhere from 20 to 22 weeks to get through just (those) 65 years of age and older.”
Despite the high demand, some Black activists are split on the decision to take the vaccine. As reported by theGrio, as Black activists continue to pour into the streets to push America to reckon with its systemic racism, they are also facing a reckoning of their own: the COVID-19 vaccine.
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While some white Americans are hesitant about the efficacy of the vaccines because of their fast-paced development, for many Black Americans the question goes deeper than simply whether or not the vaccine is effective and safe.
A number of Black people across the country are refusing the vaccine due to the long and often violent history between the medical system and the Black community. Forty-four percent of Black adults said they would not receive a coronavirus vaccine, according to Pew Research Center.
“You can pull 10,000 different things that would show why there’s a distrust between the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the Public Health Service and African Americans,” said Gina Brown, a registered nurse and dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences at Howard University in Washington.
One of the most notable reasons behind the distrust is the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment, conducted from 1932 to 1972. The experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service and CDC was intended to “record the natural history of syphilis,” according to the CDC website. But the study was conducted without the consent of the 600 Black men involved, almost all of them suffered from complications from the illness and 128 died.
“They were deceived by Public Health Service,” said Brown. “That went on for almost 40 years … that’s not even that long ago. It wasn’t until 1997 that President Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the United States, calling the study shameful and racist.”
Additional reporting by Cheyanne M. Daniels.
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