Trump explicitly rejected leading the US vaccine drive and is letting Mike Pence and congressional leaders do it instead
Advertisement
Bill Bostock
Dec 18, 2020, 19:30 IST
President Donald Trump at an Operation Warp Speed event on December 8, 2020 in Washington, DC.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
President Donald Trump made a conscious choice not to lead efforts to encourage Americans to get vaccinated, the Associated Press reported.
The president's aides are said to have wanted him to embark on trips thanking workers in the supply chain and boosting trust in the vaccine, but he passed.
Vice President Mike Pence will instead be the center of attention. He was due to be vaccinated on live TV at 8 a.m. ET on Friday.
President Donald Trump actively turned down the chance to be the face of the US vaccine rollout, instead letting Vice President Mike Pence take center stage, the Associated Press reported.
At 8 a.m. ET on Friday, Pence and his wife, Karen, were due to receive injections on live TV in a move designed to bolster public confidence in the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The US surgeon general, Jerome Adams, is also scheduled to receive the vaccine.
White House officials had wanted Trump to be the face of the vaccination drive, the AP said, but could not convince him.
The AP cited people familiar with the conversations as saying the president's aides had asked him whether he would make efforts to thank workers in the supply chain and boost trust in the vaccine, but he declined.
Aides told the AP that they were puzzled by the latest decision and saw it as a missed opportunity.
Trump has indicated he will get the vaccine but has not said when, or whether he would do it publicly.
Trump's reluctance to get vaccinated may be due to lingering concerns over the antibody cocktail he was given after testing positive for the coronavirus in October.
Advertisement
Dr. Vinay Gupta, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington, told The New York Times that Trump was in no danger from the vaccine and that there was "no scientific reason not to get vaccinated."
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told the AP that Trump's delay in getting the vaccine was because he wanted to set an example by letting those with higher priority go first.
"The president wants to send a parallel message which is, you know, our long-term care facility residents and our front-line workers are paramount in importance," she said.
She did not explain why the same logic did not apply to Pence.
Advertisement
Lawrence Gostin, a public-health professor of at Georgetown Law, told the AP: "It will be enormously damaging to public trust in the vaccine if President Trump isn't visibly enthusiastic, including getting his shot on national television.
"It simply isn't good enough to have Vice President Pence as a proxy."
Three former presidents - Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush - have said they too will be getting vaccinated and offered to do it on TV.
Advertisement
A group of senior lawmakers and Supreme Court justices will also soon be vaccinated, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
It said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be among the first.
{{}}
NewsletterSIMPLY PUT - where we join the dots to inform and inspire you. Sign up for a weekly brief collating many news items into one untangled thought delivered straight to your mailbox.