Atlanta rapper Offset is joining the chorus of celebrities with doubts about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I don’t trust it though,” Set said, after being asked by TMZ if he planned to get the treatment now that the first doses of the vaccine are on their way.
The Migos rapper expressed his skepticism about the vaccine, citing distrust between the Black community and medical professionals and politicians. “A lot of the government shit, I don’t be thinking it’s for us,” he told the outlet.
He also referenced a viral photo of four alleged Pfizer patients who volunteered to take the vaccine. In the photo, which has not been verified, the four volunteers look like they are experiencing Bell's palsy or mild facial paralysis.
The FDA did report that four people who took the Pfizer vaccine experienced Bell’s palsy, but the condition does not appear to be linked to the treatment. The CDC announced Friday that there is “no known or expected causal relationship between the vaccine and Bell’s palsy,” but that it would be monitoring for the condition.
The FDA also reported that the instances of Bell’s palsy were considered to be “consistent with the expected background rate in the general population” and “there is no clear basis upon which to conclude a causal relationship at this time.”
For many, it’s hard to dismiss Offset’s doubts when the medical community has previously and continues to neglect and mistreat Black patients, from Marion Sims, to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, to now. He also pointed out that wealthy and powerful people like himself and Barack Obama, who offered to take the vaccine on live TV, are more likely to get better treatment if anything does go wrong with the vaccine.
However, it’s also important to recognize that both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have an over 90 percent effect rate, nearly double that of the annual flu vaccine, and that people of color, especially Black low-income workers, are those dying at a disproportionate rate from the virus.
Offset is not the only celebrity expressing his doubt about the COVID-19 vaccine. Letitia Wright was recently criticized for posting an anti-vax conspiracy theory video about the vaccine.
In order to garner more support from the Black community, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been putting a spotlight on Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a Black woman who was one of the lead scientists helping to develop the coronavirus vaccine.
