Dr. Fauci visits D.C. to battle vaccine hesistancy

- So this is Anacostia, historic African-American neighborhood.

In New York, they have neighborhoods.

Here, they have wards.

So this is Ward 8.

It's the typical social determinants of health where they don't get good medical care, they have a high degree of HIV, high degree of COVID-19, the lowest level of vaccination.

They're sort of the disenfranchised group that we gotta reach out to.

So the mayor is now with me going to congratulate the people who are gonna go out into the community to try and get people vaccinated.

- How are you?

- Hi, Madame Mayor, nice to see you.

A real pleasure.

- Thank you for coming.

- Great to be, oh, it's my pleasure.

Good to be here with you.

- It's gonna be fun to watch.

- Yeah.

Yes, it is.

- Already, I think they told me they have more people, that have been this morning than they usually have at this site all day.

- Really?

- Yes.

- Fantastic.

How you doing?

- I'm doing well.

How are you doing, Dr. Fauci?

- I'm good.

(laughter) All right, Let's take a.... Whew!

- Oh my God, Dr. Fauci!

(Camera clicking) - Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

- Thanks for getting vaccinated.

- Well, good morning everybody.

I wanna give a special thank you to our fellow Washingtonian, Dr. Tony Fauci!

Let's hear it for Dr. Fauci.

(applause) - Thank you very much, Madame Mayor.

It's really a great pleasure to be here in this ward.

I've been a resident of the district for 50 years, so I love this city.

So that's one of the reasons why I'm here.

I'd like to believe people listen to me, but some don't.

But when you have people who are part of the community, you know, the community core, the trusted messengers, those are the ones they listen to.

So that's the reason why we need you to get out there and tell your colleagues, tell your friends, tell your loved ones, why it's so important to get vaccinated.

So, once again, thank you so much for all you do.

We look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

(applause) - Thank you, Dr. Fauci.

- We're talking about the vaccine with Dr. Fauci.

- Hello, Dr. Fauci.

- Yeah, Dr. Fauci really wants you to get vaccinated today.

If you're not vaccinated, - I've been vaccinated.

- All right, all right.

- I been Faucied.

- You been, you got your Fauci-ouchie?

- Yeah.

- I'm vaccinated.

- Well, good for you.

Hello.

Hi.

Nice to see you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Same here.

- I've been vaccinated since April the 23rd.

And I did it because I felt I needed to be a solution and not part of the problem.

There you go.

Great.

Do you think it hurts or, or what is it?

- No, it does other things to me, I just pass out.

- How old are you?

I'm older than you.

So don't feel badly.

- How old are you?

- I'm 80.

- Me too.

- Oh good.

- Me too!

I'm 80, too!

- That's one of the reasons why you might wanna re-consider.

- People aren't really opposed.

- Yeah, I know.

- But they do need a, they need a little push.

- They need a little push.

- A push and a drag.

- Yeah.

- Hi, neighbor!

- Oh, don't come in here, - I ain't got no clothes on!

- Well, that's okay.

This is Dr. Fauci.

- Oh, Fauci!

- Oh, Dr. Fauci, if I had some clothes on, I'd come out and give you a kiss.

I can't do it now, I ain't got no clothes on.

- Ah, I give it back to you.

- All right.

We're gonna come back and talk to her sons.

What are we gonna do about those other states?

- Oh my God.

They're gonna keep the outbreak smoldering in the country.

It's so crazy.

I mean, they're not doing it, because they say they don't want to do it.

They're Republicans.

They don't like to be told what to do.

- Right.

- And we gotta break that, you know, unpack that.

- How you guys doing with vaccine?

- I haven't got it yet.

I'm waiting for them to be able to.

- Oh, you should get it first.

Okay.

That way you won't give it to them.

Oh, I thought, I thought I would give it to 'em if I get it.

- No, no, not at all.

In fact, we gotta get you vaccinated so that if you were to get infected, you could pass it on to them.

So you're actually protecting your family by getting vaccinated.

- Well I heard that it doesn't cure it, and it doesn't stop you from getting it.

- No.

- So - On the very, very, very rare chance that you do get it, even if you're vaccinated, it's a very - you don't even feel sick.

It's like you don't even know you got infected.

It's very, very good at protecting you.

- Just the Anacostia.

So get up there.

Okay.

- Okay.

All right.

See you later.

- Thank you.

Have a good day.

- The people in America are not settled with the information that's been given to us right now.

So I'm not gonna be lining up taking a shot on a vaccination, for something that wasn't clear in the first place.

And then you all create a shot in miraculous time.

It takes years to create.

(indistinct) - Well, it used to take years.

- Okay.

It used to.

- You know how, you know, how many years we're invested in this, in this approach?

About 20 years of science to get us to be able to do.

- Twenty years is not enough.

And nine months is definitely not enough for nobody to be taking no vaccination that you all came up with.

- The only reason I'm talking to you right now, as close as we are, is that I've been vaccinated.

- Right.

- But if it allow thousands of people, like you don't get vaccinated, you're going to let this virus continue to percolate in this country and in this world.

- Something like the common flu, then right?

- And that's not like... - Basically.

- It's much more serious than the flu.

- Well, the flu kills a lot of people annually too.

- You know how many people died of the flu the last year?

I mean, not this year, virtually none.

But the previous year, about 20 to 30,000.

You know how many people have died from COVID-19 in the United States?

600,000 Americans.

- Well, you, well that the number that you all given that died, that's, that's once again, that's you all's number.

- You gonna pass?

- Yeah, definitely.

Because when you start talking about paying people to get vaccinated, when you start talking about incentivizing things to get people vaccinated, there's something else going on with that.

Something else.

It's something else.

- It is something going on.

- Yeah.

- Something else.

- But I'm glad millions of people like me, and most everybody here didn't get, you know what their incentive was?

Protecting their health and protecting the city.

- But I won't keep you anymore.

- It's okay.

- It's okay, because my, y'all campaign is about fear.

It's about inciting fear in people.

You all attack people with fear.

That's what this pandemic is.

It's a fear.

It's fear.

This pandemic.

That's all it is.