U.S. top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has addressed the rising concerns among the African-American community regarding the safety of the recently authorised COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Fauci said in an interview with CNN, as quoted by The Hill, that one of the major vaccine candidates had actually been worked on by one of them, an African-American woman.

“So, the first thing you might want to say to my African-American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African-American woman. And that is just a fact.”

Mr. Fauci was speaking in reference to a vaccine that will be released by Moderna.

“The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels -94 to 95 percent efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100 percent efficacy against a serious disease that is shown to be clearly safe.

“That vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research centre by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney