Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson and his wife have both been admitted to hospital with COVID-19

Joshua Zitser,John L. Dorman | Publié le 22/08/2021 à 20h26

The 77-year-old civil rights leader was vaccinated against COVID-19 in January and received his first shot in public to encourage others to do the same.

• The Rev. Jessie Jackson and his wife have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.
• The couple is being treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, a statement said.
• The civil rights leader received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in January.
• See more stories on Insider's business page .

The Rev. Jesse Jackson , the famed civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, and his wife have been admitted to the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19, according to his representatives.

Jackson, 79, and his wife Jacqueline Jackson, 77, are being treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said a statement issued by his nonprofit organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

"Doctors are currently monitoring the condition of both," read the statement authorized by the couple's son.

"There are no further updates at this time," it continued. "We will provide updates as they become available."

Jackson received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in January, NPR reported . He received his first dose as part of a publicized event to encourage Black people to get vaccinated, NBC News said.

With the highly infectious Delta variant sweeping the country, "breakthrough" COVID-19 infections for vaccinated individuals have been reported , especially among Americans who are older or immunocompromised.

In 2017, Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

In February, he underwent successful surgery after being hospitalized for abdominal discomfort.

Rev. Jesse Jackson receives the Pfizer's BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from Dr. Kiran Chekka, Covid Administration Physician at the Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jackson has been a longtime pillar of the civil rights movement, and his activism has endured over the years.

Earlier this month, he was arrested outside the US Capitol while calling for Congress to eliminate the filibuster, pass voting-rights legislation, and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Bernice King, the daughter of Rev. King, tweeted that she was "praying" for the couple on Saturday night.

While Jackson cut his teeth in organizing during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, his runs for president in 1984 and 1988 elevated him to the highest echelons of Democratic politics, as he used his masterful oratory to power a coalition of Black and liberal voters that yearned to flex their electoral power.

Jackson did not win the Democratic nomination in either year, but his wins in Southern primaries and several caucus states made him a force to be reckoned with in the party.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Via PakApNews