Donald Trump Took This COVID-19 Vaccine

It's no secret that the COVID-19 vaccine has been an incredibly divisive topic in the United States and beyond. Prior to the virus' outbreak in March 2020, former President Donald Trump downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, telling the public that the government had the virus' potential impact under control. However, in early March, Trump began addressing the nation in a more serious tone, emphasizing the risks of the virus. The Trump administration began banning international travel in different forms, ensuring that healthcare centers around the world had appropriate medical supplies, and gave local leaders the power to mandate masks or not, according to the Project On Government Oversight. Despite advocating for social distancing and wearing masks, Trump himself did not wear a mask or social distance while at events.

In May, Trump announced that his administration and the White House's COVID-19 response team had put $18 million into a brand new project, called Operation Warp Speed, that would work with nine organizations like Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines as quickly as possible, per The Lancet. There are currently three COVID-19 vaccines available to United States citizens: the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. According to Yale Medicine, each vaccine was released in the period of time between December 2020 and February 2021. As of October 3, 2021, a little over 60% of the United States' population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, per the Mayo Clinic.

Since the vaccines have been released, their effectiveness and safety have been consistently debated on social media and beyond. While former President Donald Trump may have been rather wishy-washy about his approach to masks and social distancing, he did maintain the importance of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, even after leaving the Oval Office in January 2021.

Recently, while at a rally in Alabama, Trump received boos from the crowd when he encouraged everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine. "I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you've got to do what you've got to do, but I recommend that you take the vaccines," Trump said at the rally, according to Yahoo! Finance. This reaction points clearly to the fact that makes Trump's hope for re-election seem a bit more difficult than it once was — many of his supporters do not trust the COVID-19 vaccine.

During an interview with Yahoo! Finance, Trump revealed that he received the Pfizer vaccine in January, though the public was not aware that he had been vaccinated until months later in March. Trump and his wife, Melania, actually contracted COVID-19 in October 2020. The former president spent a few days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was given various treatments, per CNN. When asked if he would be open to receiving a booster shot, Trump told Yahoo! Finance that he would have to wait it out and see. "If I felt that it was necessary and let's see where this whole thing is going," he said.