Watch Obama, Shaq, and Charles Barkley team up to combat vaccine hesitancy in new video

• Barack Obama, Shaquille O'Neal, and Charles Barkley have a new video advocating COVID-19 vaccines.
• Obama noted demand among the powerful: "That means everybody should know it's a good thing to get."
• Barkley said he was urging "every Black person" to "please go out and get vaccinated."

Former President Barack Obama spoke with the former NBA stars Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley in a bid to address vaccine hesitancy among Black people.

They spoke on an NBC special released Sunday night, with Obama noting the demand for COVID-19 vaccines among the richest, most powerful people in the US. "If the wealthy and powerful in our society are all lining up to get shots, that means everybody should know it's a good thing to get," he said.

Barkley, who is from Alabama, also said to "forget what happened back in the day," a reference to the Tuskegee experiment in which scientists studied hundreds of Black men with syphilis from the 1930s into the 1970s without treating them.

Barkley said he was urging "every Black person" to "please go out and get vaccinated."

Watch the video here:

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll, conducted March 15-22, found that Black adults saw the largest increase in vaccine enthusiasm of any groups from December to March.