During Marshawn Lynch’s 12 NFL seasons, he was known as bruising running back that no defender wanted to tackle head-up. However, he was never a man who really like to speak to reporters, as displayed during Super Bowl week in 2015 when he answered every question with, “I’m here so I won’t get fined.”
Now the retired running back is lending his voice to try to help members of Black and Hispanic communities as many arr still hesitant about receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
Lynch released a 30-minute interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci on his YouTube channel Friday to grill him about the vaccine.
The entire video:
Lynch himself hasn’t been vaccinated and he pointed out to Fauci that distrust in his community remains high regarding vaccine safety.
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“When it comes to the government giving back to communities that look like me, we don’t seem to be on the well-received end of those situations,” Lynch told Fauci during the interview, which was recorded late last month. “It gets to the point where it’s almost like a gamble.”
Fauci said:
“The reluctance you express is a reluctance that’s founded in historical reality,” Fauci said. “So how do we get past that? And the reason why we’ve got to get past that is because we don’t want African-Americans in the community to not have the advantage of the protection of something that really works because of history.”
Here’s parts of the interview transcribed by TMZ:
“It took a minute, but Marshawn asked Fauci, “Can I be myself?” — and that’s when the NFL star opened up … and told the infectious disease specialist everything that’s been on his mind.
Will the vaccine leave me more “f**ked up” than if I just take my chances without it?
Will the vaccine shorten my life expectancy?
The vaccine came out in a year — you sure that isn’t too quick?
“Even though it was developed in less than a year to put into people, it took decades of work to get to that point,“ Fauci said.
Was the vaccine tested on more whites than Blacks? And, if so, how will we know it’s safe for Black people?
Fauci pointed out the Black community has a higher rate of obesity, hypertension and diabetes than whites which could make COVID more deadly for them.
Marshawn responded, “So, what it sounds to me, we have a bigger problem than coronavirus.”
“It’s all educational for me,” Lynch said. “Hopefully, this gets across to the individuals that need the information, that need the education. Hopefully, it makes an impact.”
