Donald Trump.Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty
A crowd ofDonald Trump’s supporters who paid to attend one of his recent tour appearances booed when the former president said he got theCOVID-19booster shot — and added that the vaccines were “great” and “historic.”
“This was going to ravage the country far beyond what it is right now. Take credit for it,” Trump told O’Reilly in his appearance this weekend, adding that the rapid speed at which effective vaccines were developed was “historic.”
“It’s great. … Don’t let them take it away,” Trump said.
Those who doubt or criticize the vaccines, he said, are not thinking like him: “You’re playing right into their hands when you sort of, like, ‘Oh, the vaccine.’ "
Trump, who an adviser has saidgot his first COVID vaccine while he was still in officeafter he had been hospitalized with the virus, then told the audience: “If you don’t want to take it, you shouldn’t be forced to take it. No mandates.”
O’Reilly had noted that he and the president were both vaccinated, asking Trump if he had received a booster shot.
“Both the president and I are both vaxxed — did you get the booster?” O’Reilly asked.
“Yes,” Trump said.
“I got it, too,” O’Reilly said.
A portion of the crowd then began to boo the former president, who responded: “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t. No, no— That’s all right. It’s a very tiny group up there.”
While Trump has a history of touting vaccines and encouraging vaccinations — in particular because of his administration’s focus on developing them in 2020 — he has at times also downplayed the pandemic and openly questioned the effectiveness of other preventative steps like wearing face coverings.
The Biden administration, which is continuing to encourage mass vaccinations, touted Trump’s latest remarks.
“Be like President Trump, and get your booster shot,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Servicestweetedon Monday.
The introduction of the coronavirus vaccines has saved countless lives — and also highlighted a serious political divide in the U.S., where a recent tabulations show that only 60 percent of Republican adults have gotten one shot of the vaccine (compared with roughly 86 percent of Democratic voters),The New York Timesreports.
That same research found that 25 of every 100,000 residents in counties that voted for Trump died of the virus in October, compared with 7.8 per 100,000 in counties that voted overwhelmingly for Democrat Joe Biden.
As information about thecoronavirus pandemicrapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from theCDC,WHOandlocal public health departments.PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMeto raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, clickhere.
source: people.com
