Fauci: Lil Wayne, Leo DiCaprio Getting Vaccine Would Boost Confidence

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, says rapper Lil Wayne and actor Leonardo DiCaprio getting vaccinated might boost the public’s acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“If you want to get the young people who are in a minority community, you might want to get a rapper, like Lil Wayne or someone to go and get vaccinated,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday during an appearance on FiveThirtyEight’s Podcast-19.

“If you get people who are starstruck by movie actresses and actors, you might want Leonardo DiCaprio to get vaccinated. I think it really depends on what your target population is. If you want to get nerds to get vaccinated, then I’ll get vaccinated.”

Fauci received his first dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine publicly on Tuesday as part of an effort to promote confidence in the vaccine’s safety.

“I’m an attending physician here on the staff at the National Health Institutes Clinical Center, so I do see patients,” Fauci said when asked why he was inoculated.

“More important, is as a symbol to the rest of the country that I feel extreme confidence in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine and I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that we could have a veil of protection over this country that would end this pandemic.”