Trump urges Americans to get Covid-19 vaccine: ‘I would recommend’

“I would and would recommend it to many people who don’t want to get it and many of those people voted for me, frankly,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News.

“But again,” he continued, “we have our freedoms and we have to live for it and I agree with that too. But it is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine and it works.”

The comments – representing Trump’s most energetic endorsement of vaccination – come as vaccine hesitation among Republicans continues to threaten the U.S.’s path to collective immunity. Although 92% of Democrats have been vaccinated or want to be vaccinated, that number drops to 50% among Republicans, shows a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
Although Trump urged his followers to “give it a go” during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, his decision to quietly receive the vaccine without public fanfare earlier this year drew close scrutiny and contrasted with his successor and predecessors .

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were vaccinated live on television in December, and former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton offered in December to put their Covid-19 vaccines on camera to promote public confidence in the safety of the vaccine.

Former President Jimmy Carter was also inoculated against the virus.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration’s coronavirus test czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, asked Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence to encourage vaccination in light of data that indicates that many Republicans do not intend to be inoculated.

“I think it is very important for former President Trump – as well as the vice president – to actively encourage all his followers to get the vaccine,” Giroir told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”

Asked why Trump was vaccinated behind closed doors and whether it was a mistake, Giroir said he did not know that the former president had been vaccinated “until I heard this as reported in the newspaper”, adding later: “But I think the The point now is, and I think that’s where we are, that we all have to get together and ask all Americans. “

“The people who follow our former president are very committed to President Trump, and I think his leadership is still very important, and I think we have to do a better job of reaching out to disadvantaged minority communities that have been affected so disproportionately. . “

CNN’s Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.

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