(CNN) — US President Joe Biden on Tuesday gave the Trump administration credit for developing the COVID-19 vaccine and praised his predecessor, Donald Trump, for receiving a booster dose. This marks an unusual moment in which the two men have found common ground since the day of Biden’s inauguration.
“I got my booster shot as soon as they were available,” Biden said during a White House speech about his administration’s efforts to tackle the omicron variant of the new coronavirus. He added: “And the other day, former President Trump announced that he had received his booster shot.”
“It may be one of the few things that he and I can agree on,” Biden continued. “People with booster shots are highly protected. Join them. Join us.”
Unvaccinated people face a 10 times greater risk of testing positive and a 20 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people who have also received a booster dose, according to data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. the US Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
During Tuesday’s speech, Biden also praised the Trump administration for its efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine before he took office.
“Let me be clear. Thanks to the previous administration and our scientific community, the United States was one of the first countries to have the vaccine,” Biden said. “Thanks to my administration and the hard work of the Americans, we led a deployment, we put the United States among the world leaders in delivering vaccines.”
The president’s comments come two days after the release of a video showing Trump being booed by a crowd when he revealed that he had received his booster dose at an event with Bill O’Reilly.
According to the video tweeted by O’Reilly’s “No Spin News,” the former Fox News host said, “Both the president and I are vaccinated,” then asked Trump, “Did you get the booster dose?”
“Yes,” Trump said amid some boos from the audience.
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” Trump said, seeming to try to quell the boos. “It’s okay. It’s a very small group there.”
Trump has long championed his administration’s efforts to develop covid-19 vaccines, but he rarely talks about his vaccination status and has largely refused to encourage others to get them.
The revelation of the former president is a change from his previous position. Trump previously said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published in September that he was unlikely to receive the booster dose, saying he felt he was “in good shape from that point of view” and that he would “probably not” get the dose of reinforcement.
“I’ll see you later,” he added. “I’m not against it, but it’s probably not for me.”
In a longer video later tweeted on O’Reilly’s site, Trump warned his followers that they are “falling into his hands” when they discard vaccines and do not take credit for their development during his administration.
“Look, we did something that was historic. We saved tens of millions of lives around the world. Us together. All of us, not me,” Trump said in the video, just before he got some boos.
Trump went on to say in the video that Covid-19 would have “devastated the country much more than it does now” if vaccines had not been developed. But the former president also criticized the vaccine mandates.
“If you don’t want to take it, you shouldn’t be forced to. No to mandates. But take the credit, because we saved tens of millions of lives. Take the credit. Don’t let them take it away from you,” Trump said.
Trump, who caught COVID-19 while in office, received his first non-public vaccination before leaving office. CNN reported months later that his vaccination was not recorded by official photographers or videographers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
During his speech Tuesday, Biden said that unvaccinated Americans “are responsible for their own choice, but those elections have been fueled by dangerous misinformation on cable television and social media.” Although he did not name names, the spread of some misinformation and rhetoric against COVID-19 vaccines can be attributed to Trump’s allies and the right-wing press.
“You know, these companies and personalities are making money selling lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their own customers and supporters,” added Biden. “It’s wrong. It’s immoral. I ask the purveyors of this lies and misinformation to stop it. Stop it now.”
Biden has long asserted that the national effort to combat COVID-19 and recover the economy is not political, but the president has faced declining approval numbers that coincide with an increase in the delta variant and they have reimposed health restrictions. public.
On the road, even in Republican states, Biden has seized opportunities to encourage Americans to get vaccinated against Covid-19. He did it last week in Kentucky, a state where only 53.5% of residents are fully vaccinated, while inspecting damage from recent storms and tornadoes.
CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.
–
