By Aaron Blake / The Washington Post
I’d like to introduce you to a Republican who checks many of the boxes when it comes to those who need the most convincing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Engaged in conspiracy theories about the vaccine? Check. Might have believed he had enough natural immunity from a prior infection and didn’t need it? Check. Has demonstrated that he is quite worried about what his vaccine-skeptic friends might think of him? Check and check.
This Republican would like to tell those same vaccine-skeptic friends that they should get vaccinated; and has now done so repeatedly. His name is Donald Trump.
As many Republicans continue to resist the vaccine, and as ambitious and outspoken Republicans increasingly flirt with vaccine skeptics in their base — as best exemplified by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — the leader of the Republican Party has stuck to his guns in promoting the vaccine. He has done so even when jeered at or booed for it, as has now repeatedly happened. And the totality of his commentary on the matter is worth emphasizing as we continue to confront intractable vaccine skepticism.
Trump disclosed in an interview Sunday that he has gotten his booster. He did so despite claiming in a Fox Business Network interview in August that the boosters might be a Big Pharma money-grab. He also did so despite saying in September that he probably wouldn’t get a booster. If Trump turned the corner on that, maybe those who think he Made America Great Again might take notice?
To the extent that Trump’s allies continue to resist the vaccine and baselessly claim it’s dangerous or not worth it, they are expressly opposing their beloved former president. To the extent that they claim that the vaccine isn’t saving countless lives, they are disputing what Trump himself has said over and over again. To the extent that even the vaccinated ones are resisting boosters, they are now not following his lead. And according to Trump’s latest comments, they’re not just disregarding him; they’re also playing into their opponents’ hands.
To be clear, Trump is not saying anything that health officials haven’t said about the vaccine for a long time. Nor did he take up this cause when it arguably might have mattered most; he declined to disclose his own vaccination as president, and only pushed the vaccines more than a month later. But when he has weighed in on the vaccine since then, he’s delivered a message that it’s a wonder nobody has put in a public service announcement and run on repeat on Fox News and other conservative outlets whose audiences have been fed a steady diet of unsubstantiated vaccine skepticism.
Here’s a recap:
February: ‘Everybody, go get your shot”
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said, “We took care of a lot of people; including, I guess, on December 21st, we took care of Joe Biden, because he got his shot, he got his vaccine. … It shows you how unpainful that vaccine shot is.”
Trump added: “So everybody, go get your shot.”
March: ‘I would recommend it to’ my vaccine-skeptic allies
In a Fox News interview, Trump said, “I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.”
He also repudiated claims that the vaccines aren’t safe: “It’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”
Mid-April: Defended safety of Johnson & Johnson vaccine
After the federal government paused its authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, in light of rare blood-clotting issue which vaccine skeptics seized upon, Trump excoriated the decision and pointed to the minimal adverse effects.
“The federal pause on the J&J shot makes no sense,” Trump said, adding: “Just six people out of the nearly 7 million who’ve gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine reported blood clots.”
Trump even suggested that the move would feed the kind of anti-vaccine skepticism that was on the rise in his base. (Allies such as Tucker Carlson have often pointed to unverified reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS.)
“Indeed, this moronic move is a gift to the anti-vax movement,” Trump said. “The science bureaucrats are fueling that deranged pseudoscience.”
Late April: ‘The vaccine is a great thing, and people should take advantage of it’
Trump told the New York Post: “I’m all in favor of the vaccine. It’s one of the great achievements, a true miracle, and not only for the United States. We’re saving tens of millions of lives throughout the world. We’re saving entire countries.”
Trump added that, “The vaccine is a great thing, and people should take advantage of it,” while adding that it shouldn’t be mandated.
July: ‘I recommend you take it’
At a rally in Arizona, Trump said, “I recommend you take it, but I also believe in your freedoms 100 percent.”
Mid-August: ‘Once you get the vaccine, you get better’
In the same interview in which Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo ultimately goaded Trump into initially questioning the boosters, Trump began by offering one of his most forceful pro-vaccine statements.
“Now one thing: When you have the vaccine, people that do [get infected] — and it’s a very small number relatively, but people that do get it — get better much quicker,” Trump said. “And it’s very important to know. They don’t get nearly as sick, and they get better. [Sen.] Lindsey Graham is an example. He said, if I didn’t have this vaccine, I would have died.”
“So once you get the vaccine, you get better,” Trump added.
Late August: ‘Take the vaccines. … It is working.’
At a rally in Alabama shortly after the Bartiromo interview, Trump again broadly promoted vaccines; even playing off those who booed him for it.
“I recommend take the vaccines,” he said. “It’s good. I did it. Take the vaccines.”
As some in the crowd jeered, Trump took care to qualify his remarks by noting that this is about personal choice. But then he re-upped the message.
“You got; no, that’s OK. That’s all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine,” Trump said, before defusing the situation with a joke: “If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know.”
He added: “But it is working.”
September: ‘The vaccines do work. … It’s tremendously successful.’
“The vaccines do work,” Trump said on a conservative talk-radio show. “And they are effective. So here’s my thing: I think I saved millions and millions of lives around the world.”
He added: “And now countries are using our vaccines, and it’s tremendous. It’s tremendously successful.”
December: Don’t let the libs win when you promote vaccine skepticism
At an event with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in Dallas, Trump disclosed that he got a booster shot after all. He did so despite his August comments about a Big Pharma money-grab and despite having told the Wall Street Journal in September that he probably wouldn’t get it. (“I feel like I’m in good shape from that standpoint; I probably won’t. … I’m not against it, but it’s probably not for me.”)
And despite again being jeered for his vaccine promotion, Trump said that it was a small portion of the audience. He also said — as he had before — that feeding vaccine skepticism was counterproductive.
“What we’ve done is historic,” he said. “Don’t let them take away; don’t take it away from ourselves. You’re playing right into their hands when you sort of like, ‘Oh, the vaccine.’”
We shall see if his supporters heed his advice; or keep playing into the left’s hands.
Aaron Blake is senior political reporter, writing for The Fix. A Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Hill newspaper. Follow him on Twitter @aaronblake.
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