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While the first doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine are being administered to California health care workers this week and will be available to the broader public next year Rupert McClendon will not be rushing to get it.
“I would not trust it, in no shape or form,” said 42-year-old McClendon, a special education teacher in Sacramento.
McClendon’s misgivings about vaccines are rooted in family history. His uncle Stanton, who lived with his grandmother in San Francisco, was in and out of prison, and as a result he always had a hard time finding a job. So his uncle would sign up to be part of medical trials in order to make money, McClendon says.