Originally Posted by Matter-eater Man
Trump had to be prodded publicly to do a very basic decent thing months after he got vaccinated and after it became evident that a big chunk of his base wasn’t getting vaccinated. A very basic fail in leadership.


Trump created the vaccine !
It's the lying Democrats like Biden and Kamala Harris who for months through Nov-Dec 2020 said they didn't trust "a Trump vaccine" whose fearmongering made people reluctant to take it. Then they had to overcome the fearmongering they created, once inaugurated. If they'd lost the election, they'd probably still be bashing the "Trump vaccine" as unsafe.

If I recall, Biden got his first dose on Dec 21 2020, and his second on Jan 12 2021.
If Trump didn't get the vaccine right away, I assume it had to do with his JUST GETTING OVER A COVID-19 INFECTION IN OCT 2020 !
If Trump was already infected and has antibodies, why does he need vaccination at all ?!? And he got vaccinated roughly the same time as Biden.

I saw Trump as doing it for symbolic reasons, for the nation, not because he needed it.

And the fact that many don't want the vaccine has to do with the fact that his voters (and even those who aren't) are independent thinkers who can look at the facts and decide for themselves if they want the vaccine at all. If I were 18 or 25 or 35, I might decide that the risk of me getting seriously ill is about my chances of getting hit by lightning, or less, and figure I don't need the vaccine, because even if infected, I'm likely to have a very minor case. And the vaccine is not FDA approved yet and has side effects that exceed the risk of just getting a normal infection (especially if you're a woman in her 30's).
But since I'm 58, I figured I have statistically about a 12% chance of serious infection or dying of it, and chose to get the vaccine, where hopefully the vaccine will result in a minor case if I were to be infected or have any symptoms at all.

It's not as straight "Republicans don't want the vaccine, and Democrats do, TRUMP IS EVIL !!" as you try to make it out to be. I'm a fierce Trump supporter, and everyone I know is, and they all got vaccinated. There's leftist peace-love-and-granola hippies who don't want the vaccine. Some conservative and orthodox Jews who are Democrat voters who don't want the vaccine. It's not as strawman "us-and-them" as you try to make it out to be.