During the initial response to the pandemic, then President Donald Trump often found himself at odds with the scientific community.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator under the Trump administration, suggested in a March interview that hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths would have been prevented if Trump embraced extended lockdowns and more strict rules around mask wearing.
Trump has also sent mixed signals about vaccines. As recently as September, he told The Wall Street Journal that he was unlikely to get a booster shot, defying the overwhelming advice of public health officials.
Even though Trump has encouraged vaccines in the past, surveys reveal that Trump supporters are much less likely to get vaccinated than other Americans. Voters in counties that voted for Trump in 2020 are also much more likely to die from COVID-19 than their counterparts in Biden districts, according to an NPR analysis.
But the former president has recently abandoned his mealy-mouthed tone on vaccines.
In an interview released Wednesday with right-wing provocateur Candace Owens, Trump said “The vaccine worked. But some people aren’t taking it. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine.”
“But it’s still their choice,” he added “and if you take the vaccine, you’re protected. Look the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”
On Sunday, Trump was booed at a Texas appearance with Bill O’Reilly when he revealed that he was in fact boosted.
“Oh, don’t, don’t, don’t,” Trump quipped as the crowd jeered. “Look, we did something that was historic. We saved tens of millions of lives world-wide—we, together, all of us. Not me, we,” Trump added in an apparent reference to Operation Warp Speed, which helped drugmakers expedite their research and development process for COVID-19 vaccines.
CNBC reports:
After a video clip of the exchange began spreading on Twitter, the spokesman for Covid communications from the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services retweeted it with the cheeky message: “Be like President Trump, and get your booster shot.”
