Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that it would be a “game changer” for President Trump to encourage his supporters to receive the coup – after a poll found that many Republican Party voters indicated they were reluctant.
“I think it would make all the difference in the world. He’s a very popular person with Republicans, ”Fauci told anchor Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
“If he went out and said, ‘Go and get vaccinated, it is very important for your health. the health of his family and the health of the country, ‘it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers will listen to him ”.
The White House chief medical advisor noted that the Trump administration was responsible for launching Operation Warp Speed to develop vaccines to combat the pandemic.
“It seems like an intrinsic contradiction that you had a program that started during this presidency and it is not telling people to get vaccinated, but I would like it to,” said Fauci. “He has an incredible influence on the people of the Republican Party, which would really be a game changer if he did.”
A poll released on Thursday showed that 47 percent of Republicans do not plan to get the vaccine – with that number rising to 49 percent among Republican Party men.
In a separate interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, Fauci said the results are “disturbing” and “make absolutely no sense”.
“We need to dissociate political persuasion from common sense, mindless public health things,” he told anchor Chuck Todd on Sunday.
“I mean, I just can’t understand what the reason is for that when you have a vaccine that is 94 to 95 percent effective and very safe. I just don’t understand, ”he continued.
Asked when any American who wants the vaccine should be able to get it, Fauci predicted that it should be shortly after May 1 – the date on which President Biden asked states to make the vaccine eligible for all adults.
“I hope it happens a few months after that,” Fauci told CNN anchor Jake Tapper in “State of the Union”.