On Sunday, Feb. 28, at 10pm ET, FOX News Channel presents America Together With Harris Faulkner: The Shot, a one-hour special dedicated to dispelling myths, presenting scientific data and answering viewer questions about the coronavirus vaccines.
FOX News Channel’s Harris Faulkner, who anchors The Faulkner Focus and coanchors Outnumbered on weekdays, hosts the primetime special, which will feature a number of medical experts to answer viewers’ frequently asked questions about the massive rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination program.
“We’re really getting into the heart of the vaccination process, the concerns, the questions around it,” Faulkner says. “It’s going to be an hour packed with information.”
The program also examines racial disparities in vaccine distribution within communities of color, how the shots are administered, how the economy will be impacted, and what America will be like in the coming months.
“The NAACP and COVID Collaborative studies showed 14% of Blacks and 34% of those in the Latino community say they trust the COVID vaccine. So that’s a lot of people who don’t,” Faulkner says. “Many of our essential workers who are people of color, many of our neighbors and people in more economically challenged conditions and neighborhoods, don’t have regular relationships with doctors. They don’t have connections to health care unless an emergency comes up and they go to the ER. So if they are having questions about the vaccine, they don’t have that person in their lives that they can go to and ask, someone they already have formed a relationship of trust with.”
The mixed messages from medical or political officials about COVID and the vaccines has contributed to some of the skepticism, but Faulkner believes that many people are simply uncomfortable with how rapidly the scientific data and recommendations are changing due to continually evolving research.
“Doctors are in practice. There’s a reason why they call it that. They’re practicing medicine now with something they’ve never seen,” Faulkner says. “And they’re bringing us along for all of those trials, and that sometimes can be frustrating and a little scary for people.”