| 'I encourage people to take it' “I had [Covid] and I took [the vaccine].” That's what former President Donald Trump said when he sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity for the full hour Monday night, when the issue of vaccine hesitancy among his supporters came up. Trump talked up how the U.S. is “saving tens of millions of people with the vaccine” and took a shot at Pfizer, saying they’re “in with the FDA,” before knocking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause. The former president then mentioned in passing, “You know, they all want me to do a commercial because a lot of our people don’t want to take the vaccine. I don’t know what that is exactly, Republican, I don’t know what it is.” “You encourage people to take it,” Hannity said. “I encourage people to take it. I do,” Trump responded. “I had it and I took it.” “They want me to do a commercial saying take the vaccine,” he continued. “And they think that’s very important and I’d certainly do it.” The former president said he then “called them” to ask about the J&J vaccine pause, citing a reported six cases of serious blood clots in the millions of people who have gotten the ond-dose vaccine. He called it “the worst thing they could have done from a public relations standpoint.” “They want me to do a commercial, some commercial, and then they do this pause," he said, making the point that by pausing they send a bad message to the public and especially the vaccine "hesitant" about the safety of being innoculated.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has raised the same point, as have many other members of the press.
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