Reverend Jesse Jackson, pastor and iconic civil rights activist in the United States, was hospitalized after testing positive for Covid-19, although vaccinated, his representatives announced on Saturday.
Jesse Jackson, 79, and his wife Jacqueline Jackson, 77, are being treated at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, the “Rainbow PUSH Coalition” organization chaired by the Reverend said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Race to the White House
“Doctors are currently monitoring their health. Anyone who has been in contact with either in the past five or six days should follow “guidelines from the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the organization adds.
Companion of Martin Luther King in the 1960s, a talented orator, this Baptist pastor born October 8, 1941 in an America still marked by segregation, ran for the Democratic primary for the American presidential election twice in the 1980s, remaining a long time the most famous black personality to have tried the race for the White House… until Barack Obama.
Outbreak with Delta
He was vaccinated against the coronavirus last January, and then urged reluctant African Americans to get vaccinated. The announcement of his hospitalization comes as the United States, the country most bereaved by Covid-19 with more than 620,000 dead, is experiencing a new outbreak of contamination caused by the Delta variant.
Jesse Jackson announced in 2017 to suffer from Parkinson’s disease. In July, he received from the hands of French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris the insignia of Commander of the Legion of Honor.
–
