Public health leaders say all-out effort needed to get people to take vaccine
WASHINGTON – Even as President Donald Trump claims credit for the rapid development of vaccines against COVID-19, it remains unclear whether he will take the vaccine and how hard he’ll work to persuade skeptical followers to get immunized, particularly after he leaves office.
Other former presidents, including Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, have publicly committed to taking the vaccine, which may be shipped out to medical centers and nursing homes as soon as this weekend. So have Presidentelect Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Public health leaders say an all-out national effort will be necessary to persuade unwilling Americans – including a majority of Republicans, according to polls – to sign up and get a shot when the vaccine becomes more widely available, probably in the spring of 2021.
“It’s pretty clear that, in America, different people take their advice from different authorities,” said Dr. Richard Besser, a former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who now leads the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “It would likely have real impact if the president came out strongly for vaccination.”
By some estimates, as many as three-quarters of all Americans may need to get vaccinated to effectively quash the pandemic.
The first vaccine expected to reach Americans – manufactured by U.S. pharmaceutical giant
Pfizer – is under review by the Food and Drug Administration and is likely to get regulatory approval this week.
As soon as it does, the drugmaker plans to begin shipping vaccine doses across the country so states can begin implementing their immunization plans.
White House officials insist Trump will support the nationwide effort, and the president on Tuesday afternoon hosted a “vaccine summit” to tout his administration’s support for what he called a “modern-day miracle.”
“People that aren’t necessarily big fans of Donald Trump are saying, ‘Whether you like him or not, this is one of the greatest miracles in the history of modern-day medicine or any other medicine, any other age of medicine,’” he said.
Trump did not say whether he would get the shot or encourage people to get it, but he digressed at length – and falsely – about how he won the election.
“The president has previously expressed his willingness to do whatever the experts thought was the best path, in terms of instilling vaccine confidence,” a senior
White House aide told reporters Monday.
Because Trump already had COVID-19, White House officials wouldn’t commit that he would publicly get vaccinated to help persuade more Americans to take the same step.
“There is an open question as to whether, ultimately, he will be one of the ones to take it on air,” the aide said.
During a simultaneous event, Biden set a goal of immunizing 100 million people within the first 100 days of his administration. But he warned that Congress needs to provide more funding to ensure the distribution runs smoothly.
“There’s a real chance that after an early round of vaccinations, the effort will slow and stall,” he said.
Throughout the pandemic, Trump has been openly dismissive of public health guidance, including eschewing mask wearing and encouraging his supporters to pack into venues for his rallies, as recently as Saturday night in Georgia, despite the state’s surge in infections.
And, in the past, Trump has embraced the widely discredited notion that childhood vaccinations are linked to autism. “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases!” Trump tweeted on March 28, 2014.
More recently, however, during a 2019 measles outbreak that was linked to parents’ refusal to get their children vaccinated, Trump appeared to change course, telling reporters it was important for children to get the shot.