Donald Trump and COVID-19 have a pretty contentious history—first by ignoring it outright, then by downplaying its seriousness, suggesting that drinking bleach might help ward it off, and later being felled by it. By most accounts, the former president’s handling of the virus and the pandemic it created was downright disastrous, but there’s at least one positive thing that did happen on his watch (beyond his own COVID test ahead of his 2020 debate with Joe Biden): Operation Warp Speed.
Whereas developing a vaccine, testing its efficacy and safety, and bringing it to market might normally take years, Operation Warp Speed expedited that process so that frontline workers and at-risk individuals were getting vaccinated less than a year after we first heard about the novel coronavirus. All of this happened during Trump’s final year in office, which Biden freely acknowledged—and that was pretty darn surprising to Trump!
On Tuesday, according to Raw Story, Fox News’ Brooke Singman reported on Biden’s plan to increase access to COVID testing and vaccines across the country in response to the highly contagious omicron variant, which now accounts for nearly 75 percent of new COVID infections nationwide. While discussing the plan, Biden said that “Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America is one of the first countries to get the vaccine. Thanks to my administration, the hard work of Americans, we let, our roll-out, made America among the world leaders in getting shots in arms.”
Trump, who has previously begged for someone—anyone—to give him some sort of credit for the speed with which our COVID vaccines were authorized, seemed shocked that Biden actually did just that.
“I’m very appreciative of that—I was surprised to hear it,” Trump, who has possibly never once thought to give credit where it is due, told Fox News. “I think it was a terrific thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy.”
Biden has never not acknowledged the role the Trump administration played in getting the vaccine rollout started, though, as Raw Story noted, the former president didn’t do himself—or his supporters—any favors by refusing to say whether he himself had been vaccinated.
On Sunday, Trump publicly acknowledged that he had received a COVID booster at one of his “History Tour” engagements with Bill O’Reilly… and was booed by the crowd.
(Via Raw Story)