On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert said that he hopes former President Trump shall push his supporters to get the COVID-19 vaccine and emphasized that the pandemic-related restrictions should be lifted permanently.
In a poll released last week, about half of U.S. men who had identified themselves as Republicans said that they had no plans to get the vaccine.
Trump, Fauci said that this is such a strong popular reason and it would be very helpful for the effort for that to happen. Trump told his attendees at a conservative conference last month to get vaccinated and asked everybody to go get their shot, which was for the first time he had encouraged people to do so.
Moreover, Fauci said on NBC’s Meet the Press program that how such a large proportion of a certain group of people would deliberately not want to get vaccinated merely because of political considerations, as it makes absolutely no sense, he added.
The other former U.S. presidents, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter are now set to appear in two public service announcements for the coronavirus alongside their wives, without Trump.
President Joe Biden and other political leaders have received their shots publicly to encourage the Americans to get vaccinated. Trump was vaccinated privately in the White House in January, as has been reported by the New York Times.
Fauci said that getting the vaccines is a no-brainer as he listed some of the diseases that vaccines had wiped out, such as smallpox. He asked what the problem was, as this is a vaccine that is going to be lifesaving for millions of people.
Fauci is the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and also an adviser to Biden.
Early in the pandemic, Trump had appeared at the coronavirus briefings with Fauci but later turned on him. In October, after weeks of being hospitalized for three days due to COVID-19 treatment, Trump criticized Fauci saying that he is a disaster. And people of tired of hearing Fauci, and all these idiots.
As a president, Trump had further minimized the need for coronavirus restrictions including wearing masks and had predicted that the pathogen would disappear like a miracle.
On Sunday, Fauci underscored his call for the officials around the United States not to lift restrictions prematurely and risk a spike in the COVID-19 cases. However, some states like Texas have lifted mask-wearing and similar other restrictions.
Fauci told that an increase in the number of cases could be avoided if the Americans continue to get vaccinated without all of a sudden pulling back on the public health measures.
He further added that he thinks they will gradually be able to pull the restrictions back. And, if things go as planned then by the early summer, the fourth of July weekend, they will have a considerable degree of normality.
