Trump says he 'probably won't' get a COVID-19 booster shot after denouncing them as a money-making ploy for pharma companies: WSJ
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- Trump told the Wall Street Journal he "probably won't" get a COVID-19 booster shot.
- Trump previously denounced boosters as a "money-making operation for Pfizer" to Fox Business.
- The former president urged his supporters to get the shot at a rally in Alabama late last month.
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Former President Donald Trump says he will likely not get a COVID-19 booster shot as the Biden administration weighs proposals to roll out boosters to already-vaccinated Americans.
"I feel like I'm in good shape from that standpoint-I probably won't," Trump told The Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender. "I'll look at stuff later on. I'm not against it, but it's probably not for me."
In an August interview on Fox Business, Trump denounced booster shots as "a money-making operation for Pfizer," the maker of one of the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the US.
The New York Times reported on Friday that leaders of the Food & Drug Administration - which already greenlit boosters for some immunocompromised Americans - and the Centers for Disease Control are urging the White House to pump the brakes on its plans to roll out boosters to all Americans, saying they need more time to collect data.
The former president suffered a bad bout with COVID-19 in October 2020 after repeatedly flouting public health guidance, and was treated with monoclonal antibodies at Walter Reed Hospital. He and former first lady Melania Trump were fully vaccinated in January, but Trump didn't publicly acknowledge getting the shot until months later.
Trump has previously cast doubt on vaccines, including pushing debunked theories that vaccines cause autism in children. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, though, Trump has demanded that he get more credit for the development and funding of COVID-19 vaccines through his administration's Operation Warp Speed initiative and encouraged his supporters to get vaccinated at various points.
At an August 23 rally in Cullman, Alabama, however, Trump was booed by the crowd for urging them to get the shot.
"I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you've got to do what you've got to do," Trump said. "But I recommend that you take the vaccines."
The spread of the highly contagious Delta variant is a major setback for the US's fight against COVID-19 and particularly devastating in communities with low vaccination rates.
Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to resist getting vaccinated, leading some GOP leaders to launch a full-court press to get more of their supporters to take the shots.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, has consistently urged Republicans in his home state of Kentucky and nationwide to get the shot, and recently put out a new public service announcement promoting vaccination.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3jI0PxD
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