The 'Madea' star and creator is 'glad' that 'at least 55 percent of my crew agreed to get it' as he helps make the vaccines available to Tyler Perry Studios' employees and their family and friends.
- April 7, 2021
AceShowbiz - Tyler Perry is ending the quarantine bubble. After applying the protocol at his studio in Atlanta, Georgia for nearly one year, the "Madea" star and creator set up COVID-19 vaccination site to help his production crew get vaccinated.
The 51-year-old teamed up with Grady Hospital to hold the event which took place on Saturday, April 3. In a documented video, he said, "We are at Tyler Perry Studios. Just did our first vaccination event, pretty successful. I've seen a lot of vaccine hesitancy out there and I'm glad that at least 55 percent of my crew agreed to get it. So we set up the event here and everything."
"It's my hope that people will get out and get the vaccine and know that I have it, other members of my staff have it, we've had no issues, no problems," the movie mogul further noted. "I've had it since January. That's my hope."
Tyler reportedly paid for the logistical costs of setting up the site while staff of Grady Hospital handled the vaccinations. The vaccines, which were not mandatory, were open to anyone at the studio who wanted one and has yet to receive it. Aside from the studio crews, their family and friends can also take the offer.
The creator of "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" is set to end the bubble on Saturday, April 10. Medical workers will return to the studio in a couple of weeks to administer the second dose of Pfizer vaccine after giving more than 250 shots at the first vaccination.
Tyler got his own vaccine back in January while appearing in "COVID-19 Vaccine and the Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special". When speaking to Gayle King on "CBS This Morning", he said that he was involved on the BET project to de-stigmatize vaccinations.
"If you look at our history in this country, the Tuskegee experiment, Henrietta Lacks, it raises flags for us as African American people," he pointed out. "So I understand why there's a healthy scepticism about the vaccine."
Tyler went on to claim that he "didn't really feel like [he] could trust it" before doing further research about it. He then added, "Once I got all the information, found out the research, I was very, very happy."
