“Both the president and I are vaxxed,” O’Reilly said at the American Airlines Centre,drawing some jeers from the audience,according to video shared online by O’Reilly’sNo Spin News.
“Did you get the booster?” he asked the former president. “Yes,” Trump responded. “I got it,too,” O’Reilly said,eliciting more hectoring.
“Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” Trump told the crowd,waving off their reaction with his hand.
While Trump has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates,he has long taken credit for the vaccines developed on his watch. At the same time,he has refused to urge his supporters to take them,even though Republicans remain far less likely than Democrats to be protected.
For instance,while other world leaders,including former vice president Mike Pence,President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris,received their doses publicly to promote the lifesaving medicine,Trump chose to receive his in private — an acknowledgement of the unpopularity of the vaccine with large swaths of his base.
And while he has blamed the Biden administration for high levels of vaccine scepticism,he repeatedly undermined public health recommendations while in office,encouraging the use of unproven treatments and playing down the threat the virus posed as he tried to prioritise economic recovery and secure a second term.