Lost in the absurdity of the campaign last week by outlets such as The Washington Post and The NY Times to give former president Trump credit for a vaccine rollout he all but ignored while in office, is the fact that Trump could literally make a huge difference in convincing otherwise skeptical people to get the vaccine.
And the Biden Administration says it would gladly welcome his help!
Dr. Anthony Fauci used his time on Chris Wallace’s Sunday morning show to ask the former president to use his considerable sway to urge his MAGA followers to get vaccinated, something Fauci calls a no-brainer public health measure.
Recent polls show republicans, especially Trump supporters, are much less likely to want to get the vaccine in comparison to democrats. It’s even an issue in Congress, where 25% of House members have not been vaccinated, some for medical reasons and others because they simply refuse to. That reticence concerns experts like Fauci, who say the vaccines are safe and proving to be incredibly effective against the virus.
To be accurate, Trump has urged people to get the vaccine. He said it at the CPAC event in Orlando a few weeks ago. Now imagine how many people he could convince to get the vaccine if he issued a strongly worded statement, like the ones he’s been sending with increasingly regularity in recent weeks.
Instead, he’s chosen to stay uncharacteristically quiet. He did not appear in the PSA that featured every other living former president encouraging Americans to get vaccinated. Also, Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump both were vaccinated at the White House before he left office…and kept it secret.
Why would he do that? Why would he not use his influence over a large segment of the U.S. population to urge them to get the vaccine which could protect them and help hasten the end of the pandemic?
To paraphrase Dr. Fauci from one of his weekend TV appearances, we just don’t get it.
