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- Alex Azar said Trump would have encouraged "trust and confidence" in the vaccine by getting it on TV
- Azar also said that the Trump administration could have done more to address vaccine hesitancy
- Azar said vaccine refusal by 'fellow conservatives and Republicans' was a 'frustrating irony.'
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President Trump should have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine on national television in order to promote trust in the vaccine among his supporters, wrote former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a guest essay in the New York times. Azar also encouraged all Americans to get the vaccine.
Televising the shot would have inspired "trust and confidence" in the vaccine among the former president's supporters, he argued. Both Donald and Melanie Trump got the shot at the White House in January 2021, though the American public didn't learn about it until March.
In contrast, all four other living former presidents have encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.
Azar said it was a "frustrating irony" for him that so many conservatives and Republicans are reluctant or refusing to get the vaccine, given his own role in helping to oversee the vaccine's development under Operation Warp Speed, a Trump administration initiative.
A Monmouth poll found yesterday that 31% of Republicans say they'll likely never get the vaccine.
Azar wrote that both the former president and his administration could have done more to address vaccine hesitancy, particularly among conservatives. While the administration took steps to include a "diverse, representative sample of participants" in clinical trials, they did not consider Republicans taking a stand against the shot.
"We did not predict the politicization of vaccines that has led so many Republicans to hold back," he wrote. "The vaccines could be a victory lap for the Republican Party, and I call upon all party leaders and conservatives to double down on encouraging vaccination."
Azar also said that Biden had a responsibility to reach out to conservatives, and that it was important not to "hector or preach" about the benefits of vaccines.
"[The Biden administration] would also do well to continue to acknowledge the historic achievement of the Trump administration in expediting these vaccines," he said. "A measure of political graciousness could go a long way to depoliticize the issue."