Byron Allen and Dr. Anthony Fauci Talk COVID-19 Impact on the African-American Community

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group, Byron Allen, recently sat with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for a powerful conversation about COVID-19's devastating impact on the African-American community.

Hosted exclusively on Allen Media Group's digital news platform/network, theGrio, the video interview features Allen and Fauci unpacking community skepticism about vaccines, and how to reduce the spread of COVID-19.  Allen calls Fauci an "American hero" and praises him for his efforts to keep Americans safe. Allen even offered to provide Fauci and his family use of a COVID-safe private jet for a vacation as an expression of gratitude for all of Dr. Fauci's dedication and hard work. Dr. Fauci graciously declined Allen's generous gesture, as he is a federal government employee and not allowed to accept such gifts.

Allen's full interview with Dr. Fauci can be viewed on Thanksgiving Day at 9:00 a.m. ET simultaneously via theGrio digital platform (www.thegrio.com), theGrio's YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/thegrio), theGrio's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/theGrio), and theGrio app on Roku and Amazon Fire.

Video highlights from the interview are below.

Can the Black community trust the COVID-19 vaccine?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEUMQe8e8to

Dr. Fauci's Thanksgiving Safety Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXsv-vnQ-uY

Byron's Special Thanks (and vacation offer) to Dr. Fauci:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbgxbxDbq50

RELEVANT QUOTES/PASSAGES

FAUCI ON CHALLENGES OF GETTING PEOPLE TO TAKE VACCINE:

"We know we have a challenge in convincing people in general to get a vaccine, particularly because of mixed signals that have come out of Washington. We have an even greater challenge to get our African-American brothers…and others for a variety of reasons.

Historically, particularly the African-American community and to some extent the LatinX community has been treated in a way that's been shameful historically going back decades.

That's not easy to forget. So we have got to reach out to the community and explain to them that we've done everything we possibly can to make this a transparent and independent process." -- Dr. Anthony Fauci

ON BLACK AMERICA NOT GETTING PUSHED "TO THE BACK OF THE BUS" WHEN IT COMES TIME FOR THE VACCINE:

"Ultimately, you're going to have a vaccine for everybody. But...before you get out into the spring where anybody can probably get a vaccine in a drugstore, in the early distribution...they get advice from advisory committees. And I can tell you, I speak with them on a daily basis. And it's very clear that African-Americans are quite vulnerable for a number of reasons. They have a higher rate of infection."

"Now, one of the things that we're going to have to make sure doesn't slip between the cracks...is at the local level. Vaccines will get shipped to the locations at the local level, and it's up to local health authorities to make sure distribution is given in the way that it's recommended.

I recommend that the African-American community, particularly in those areas where they clearly have a say, where you have the fundamentally minority population to hold the feet to the fire of the people that are doing that and make sure that the prioritization is according to the need. And there's no doubt that there is a considerable need among the minority populations." -- Dr. Anthony Fauci

ON GETTING BLACK AMERICA COMFORTABLE WITH KNOWING IT'S OK FOR OUR CHILDREN TO TAKE THE VACCINE:

"This is a good thing, to get sports figures, to get entertainment figures. The people that the community looks up to… You don't want only a white guy in a suit like me going into the community and say, 'Trust me, I'm from the federal government.' You know, there's a joke about that. So you do really want people who are committed, who are really respected in the community." -- Dr. Anthony Fauci

THANKSGIVING ADVICE AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

"I've told people really, unless it's absolutely necessary, to just not have the typical type of Thanksgiving travel where you're going to crowded airports and crowded train stations and getting on planes that are booked full. Those are the kind of things that can be risky because we know that infections can be spread by people who have no symptoms at all.

What you don't want is in the innocent and traditionally wonderful situation of a big Thanksgiving meal where you have 15, 20, 25, five people at a table… We do that every year, all of us, to some extent that we may need to rethink that… All the elderly people, other people with underlying conditions, and would you want to put them at risk?

Now's the time to just rethink that risk benefit ratio and have a much more confined type of a celebration with family members...who actually live in the household, as opposed to a friend or a relative who comes from a plane ride away."

"You have no idea if they're innocently and inadvertently affected, infected, and then come into the house and just transmit it to somebody else. That has happened and it is happening. And those are the things we really got to try to avoid." -- Dr. Anthony Fauci

About Entertainment Studios / Allen Media Group

Chairman and CEO Byron Allen founded Entertainment Studios in 1993. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Raleigh.  Entertainment Studios owns 16 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations and ten 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 180 million subscribers: THE WEATHER CHANNEL, PETS.TV, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV, JUSTICE CENTRAL.TV, LIGHT TV, and THIS TV. Entertainment Studios will add its eleventh network, THE WEATHER CHANNEL EN ESPANOL in 2021. Entertainment Studios also owns LOCAL NOW and THE GRIO free-streaming AVOD services, powered by THE WEATHER CHANNEL and content partners, which delivers real-time, hyper-local news, weather, traffic, sports, and lifestyle information. Entertainment Studios also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 67 television programs, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations. Entertainment Studios International Television continues to extend the ES corporate branding and content around the globe. It currently has active license agreements and programming in South Africa, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, The Bahamas, Canada and New Zealand. With a library of over 5,000 hours of owned content across multiple genres, Entertainment Studios provides video content to broadcast television stations, cable television networks, mobile devices, multimedia platforms, and the World Wide Web.  Our mission is to provide excellent programming to our viewers, online users, and Fortune 500 advertising partners.

Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures is a full-service, theatrical motion picture distribution company specializing in wide release commercial content. ESMP released 2017's highest-grossing independent movie, the shark thriller 47 METERS DOWN, which grossed over $44.3 million. In 2018, ESMP also released the critically-acclaimed and commercially successful Western HOSTILES, the historic mystery-thriller CHAPPAQUIDDICK and the sequel to 47 METERS DOWN, 47 METERS DOWN: UNCAGED. The digital distribution unit of Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, Freestyle Digital Media, is a premiere multi-platform distributor with direct partnerships across all major cable, digital and streaming platforms. Capitalizing on a robust infrastructure, proven track record and a veteran sales team, Freestyle Digital Media is a true home for independent films.

In 2016, Entertainment Studios purchased The Grio, a digital video-centric news community platform devoted to providing African-Americans with compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets. The Grio features aggregated and original video packages, news articles and opinion pieces on topics that include breaking news, politics, health, business and entertainment. Originally launched in 2009, the platform was then purchased by NBC News in 2010. The digital platform remains focused on curating exciting digital content and currently has more than 100 million annual visitors.

For more information, visit:

www.entertainmentstudios.com

www.thegrio.com

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SOURCE Entertainment Studios, Inc.