Tyler Perry is using his personal experience with the COVID-19 vaccine to help raise awareness and open people's eyes. The movie mogul has now received both doses of the potentially world-changing vaccine, and has created a TV special aimed at combating skeptics and conspiracy theorists.
Perry recently spoke with Gayle King on CBS This Morning, and explained how he came to create the upcoming BET docu-special COVID-19 Vaccine And The Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special.
"If you look at our history in this country, the Tuskegee experiment, Henrietta Lacks, it raises flags for us as African American people. So I understand why there's a healthy skepticism about the vaccine," said Perry, who also admitted that, at first, "I didn't really feel like I could trust it."
"But once I got all of the information, found out the researchers, I was very, very happy," Perry continued.
The half-hour special includes Perry's interview with Carlos del Rio, MD Executive Associate Dean for Emory School of Medicine at Grady Health System, as well as Kimberly Dyan Manning, MD Professor of Medicine at Grady Health System.
"I have a crew that works for me, and they're largely African-American people who were all skeptical about the vaccine. When they sat in the room, as they worked on the cameras, and doing hair and makeup and all that stuff, they listened to all the information, and by the time we got to the end of it, they all wanted to take it," Perry told King. "So I think, again, it all goes back to getting the correct information and getting it from people that you trust and you understand."
Perry revealed that he had received the Pfizer vaccine, and had gotten his second required dose on Monday.
The 51-year-old filmmaker said he'd felt no adverse reactions to the first dose, and with the second dose he "woke up with some aches and pains," but subsequently felt fine after taking some Advil.
COVID-19 Vaccine And The Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special airs Thursday, Jan. 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on BET and BET Her.
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