Trump recommends getting vaccine

Former President Donald Trump said he would urge his supporters and others wary of the COVID-19 vaccine to get it, while also saying that personal freedoms must be respected.

“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 in a telephone interview with Fox News on Tuesday night. “But you know again, we have our freedoms, 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.”

Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said on Sunday that reluctance among Republicans to receiving a vaccine is one of the biggest risks to controlling the coronavirus pandemic and that he’d like to see Trump publicly urge his supporters to get the vaccine.

But Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday that he discussed it with his team and “they say the thing that has more impact than anything Trump would say” to his supporters is having their local doctor, preacher and others in their community telling them why it’s importantto get the vaccine.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were each vaccinated on live television in December, and former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have all been vaccinated.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration’s coronavirus testing czar, Adm. Brett Giroir, called on Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence to encourage vaccinations in light of the data indicating many Republicans do not intend to get inoculated.