Charlize Theron takes on a new role in the fight against reluctance and inequalities in the face of the COVID vaccine: “I’ve seen people come out on the other side”

The COVID-19[female[feminineThe vaccination rate is below 4% in South Africa, where Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron was born.

Her organization, “The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project,” is stepping up efforts to tackle misinformation and vaccine inequalities found in poorer countries like South Africa.

The program has been fighting to prevent the spread of HIV / AIDS among South Africa’s adolescent population since 2007. She said her organization is reaching out to South African residents who are reluctant to get vaccinated due to misinformation about vaccines.

“I mean, we’ve seen misinformation about HIV. So this is nothing new for us. It’s about finding the right community health worker who will be able to sit down with someone and talk to them in a language they understand. And they know her because they see her on the streets, ”Theron told CBS News’s Jonathan Vigliotti.

Theron is now channeling his organization’s local network in the fight against COVID. Only 14% of South Africa’s 60 million people are fully immunized.

“We have to remember that we are talking about families. And when we see the devastation COVID-19 has caused us personally here in America, it is so much worse in countries like South Africa,” Theron said.

The global pandemic has revealed how failing public health systems are with marginalized populations. Only a third of the promised doses of COVID vaccines have been delivered to Africa.

“These viruses will not go away until we really look at social injustices. We value some lives more than others and until that is gone we will never come to the end. diseases like HIV or COVID, ”Theron said.

Theron hopes that by educating vulnerable communities about the dangers of COVID-19, more people will feel comfortable getting vaccinated.

“Look, I’m like an optimist,” she said. “If I didn’t think there was hope for all of this … This human spirit that we all have, and the way you see people surviving unimaginable things, is what gives me life. ‘hope because I’ve seen people come from the other side because we can do it. We really can. “

Earlier this summer, President Biden pledged to send 1 billion more COVID-19 doses of the vaccine to other countries, but Ford Foundation chairman Darren Walker, who works with the Theron Foundation, told “CBS Mornings” that was still not enough.

“While we are encouraged by the administration’s urgent call to action, we need more vaccines delivered to the developing world,” Walker said. “So the billion is a good start, but we need a multiple of that number.”

Walker said the United States should work with other G-20 countries to organize “collective action” as more money will be needed.

“It’s going to take tens of billions of dollars. You have to find the funding for it. You have to work on the supply,” Walker said.

The Ford Foundation will donate $ 15 million in Ford Foundation grants to help fight vaccine reluctance.

“Reluctance to the vaccine is a major challenge,” Walker said. “Misinformation and disinformation across the African continent is real, just like in the United States.”