When the Trump administration announced that its Project Warp Speed had produced COVID-19 vaccines in record time, much of America lined up to get one. Still, a surprising number of Americans had some skepticism, including Winston-Salem restaurateur and entrepreneur, Algenon Cash.

​”I’m still on the fence about the vaccine,” says Algenon. “I actually had a long conversation with (infectious disease specialist) Dr. Christophe Ohl over at Wake Forest Baptist Health and he eased a lot of my fears about the vaccine. I was one of those who thought, ‘OK, the process was rushed too fast – it usually takes 8 to 10 years to develop a drug therapeutic.”

Of course, Algenon is barely over 40 years old and in excellent health so he’s not in one of the high-risk groups. Some of Flavia Nazareth’s family is, though. Flavia and her husband are naturalized American citizens who both grew up in Brazil.

“My mother-in-law lives here now. She’s 87 so she will, for sure, get the vaccine,” Flavia says. “She needs to go to Brazil once a year to renew her pension – she has to prove she’s alive – so she does have to travel and that’s a concern.”

Monica Moyer is a former Bank of America executive who now owns Archdale Bakery. She’s African-American and admits there is some heightened skepticism among people of color when it comes to programs like mass vaccinations, but she has no qualms about her family getting it.

“If my kids, they say they have to have a vaccine to go to school then, guess what? My kids get the flu shot, we do those things,” says Monica.

See more on how subjects of our Project 2021 feel about the vaccine program in this report.