On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump finally encouraged Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19 amidst doubts over it’s safety and potential side effects.
“I would recommend it. And I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.
Trump also acknowledged that Americans do own personal liberties for their health. “and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also.”
“But it’s a great vaccine. It’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works. And we’ve been working round the clock. And what I got the FDA to do—this would have happened in many, many years from now if I didn’t get involved, and if we did get involved,” he continued. “I wouldn’t say the FDA loves me, but I pushed them very, very hard, harder than they’ve ever been pushed. And a number of the people in the FDA admitted that and at the end, they were very happy.”
Following the incredible success of Operation Warp Speed that developed two vaccine in just over nine months, the FDA authorized vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna under the Trump administration.
Trump’s recommendation comes after a couple of top officials called on him to encourage supporters to get vaccinated, especially since a large chunk of Trump’s supporters oppose the vaccine.
“He’s such a strongly popular person, I can’t imagine that if he comes out, that they would not get vaccinated. It would be very helpful for the effort for that to happen. I’m very surprised by the number of Republicans who say they won’t get vaccinated. I don’t understand where that’s coming from. This is not a political issue, it is a public health issue,” Dr. Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top adviser to President Joe Biden, said during a recent TV appearance.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also invited Trump to join the public health campaign to reassure those who are wary about the vaccine and, hopefully, influence their decision to get vaccinated.
“If former President Trump woke up tomorrow and wanted to be more vocal about the safety and efficacy of the campaign—of the vaccine, certainly we’d support that,” Psaki said in a Monday briefing.
“Every other living former president—or most of them, if not all of them—has participated in public campaigns. They did not need an engraved invitation to do so. So he may decide he should do that. If so, great. But there are a lot of different ways to engage, to reach out, to ensure that people of a range of political support and backing know the vaccine is safe and—safe and effective,” she added.
