Since its introduction at the start of the year, the COVID vaccine has been the subject of intense partisan debate, with Republicans being the most predominant source of misinformation about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness in curbing the coronavirus pandemic. Which is why it’s particularly notable that Donald Trump is slowly emerging as a staunch defender of the vaccines that, technically, were sped into production under his administration.
During a new interview with The Daily Wire‘s Candace Owens, Trump not only swatted down the conservative conspiracy theory that people are dying because of the vaccine, but he did it after Owens teed him up with a chance to attack Joe Biden for having more people die of COVID under his administration. Via The Hill:
“Oh no, the vaccines work, but some people aren’t the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected,” Trump told Owens.
“Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form,” Trump continued. “People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”
As for what the heck is going on, Trump seems to be finally leaning into the fact that he can take a huge amount of credit for the vaccine development if he starts admitting that they are safe and effective. It’s also notable that Trump recently revealed that he was very happy to see the Biden administration credit him for Operation Warp Speed. If that was an attempt to get Trump to be more vocal about the jab, it’s freaking working. He’s already out here confirming that he got a booster shot, so stroke that orange maniac’s ego until he’s personally handing out the shots himself. We can do this.
(Via The Hill)