Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an adviser to Mr. Biden, said on Sunday that he hopes former President Trump will encourage his followers to get the coronavirus vaccine as recent polls show high levels of hesitancy among GOPs and emphasized that epidemic-related restrictions shouldn’t be lifted prematurely.
The top infectious disease expert said during an interview on the Fox News program that he thinks it would make all the difference in the world if Mr. Trump uses his ‘incredible influence’ among Republicans and say “Go and get COVID-19 vaccine injections,” it’s vital for their health, the health of their family and the health of the nation,’ it looks as if unconditionally inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his supporters would listen to him.
In a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll conducted and released on March 11, about half of American men who identified themselves as Republicans stated they had no plans to receive the jabs. Moreover, 49% of Republican men polled and 47% of people who supported Donald Trump in 2020 said they wouldn’t choose to be vaccinated.
Important numbers on vaccine hesitancy we highlighted on @NewsHour.
Americans who will choose NOT to be vaccinated if one is available to them:
49% GOP men
41% Republicans
40% White non-college educated men
38% White evangelicals
37% Latino
28% White
25% Black
11% Democrats pic.twitter.com/tqaGRsjw04— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 12, 2021
Dr. Fauci: Getting the COVID-19 vaccine is no-brainer
Last month, Mr. Trump told attendees at a conservative conference to get vaccinated, saying, ‘everybody, go get your ‘Vaccine shot’. It was for the first time he had encouraged Americans to do so.
Fauci said on NBC’s Meet the Press program that a large proportion of a specific group of people wouldn’t want to get shots merely because of political considerations. It makes absolutely no sense.
Fauci told in the program that getting the vaccine is ‘no-brainer,’ as he listed some of the diseases that vaccines had wiped out, like smallpox. He added this is a vaccine that is going to be life-saving for millions of people. He said that ‘he means he cannot comprehend what the reason for that is when they have a vaccine that is 94-95% effective and very safe, and just does not get it.’
In addition, the other living former American presidents, George Walker Bush, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, are set to arrive in two public service announcements for the vaccine alongside their wives, without Mr. Trump.
President Biden and other political leaders received their jabs publicly to encourage Americans to get inoculated. The New York Times has reported, Donald Trump was vaccinated privately in the White House in January 2020.
Mr. Trump, early in the epidemic, appeared at COVID-19 briefings with Dr. Fauci but later turned on him. Trump, in October, weeks after being hospitalized for three days for COVID-19 treatment, criticized Fauci, saying, Dr. Fauci is a disaster. Moreover, people are tired of hearing Fauci and all those idiots.
Don’t want to let COVID-19 cases increase by being too rash to pull back restrictions, says Fauci
As president, Mr. Trump minimized the need for coronavirus-related restrictions, including wearing face-masks, and predicted the pathogen would disappear like a miracle.
On Sunday, Fauci underscored his call for officials around the U.S. not to lift restrictions prematurely and risk a spike in coronavirus cases. Some states such as Texas have lifted mask-wearing and other restrictions.
Source: Web
Fauci told CNN’s State of the Union program, an uptick in COVID-19 cases can be avoided if Americans continue to receive their shots ‘without all of a sudden pulling back on public health measures.’
Fauci added that they would gradually be able to pull restrictions back. Moreover, if things go as they planned, just as the President said, by the time they get into the early summer, the July 4 weekend, they really will have a considerable degree of normality. However, they do not want to let that escape from their grasp by being too quick to pull back.
