Washington: Former president Donald Trump said he would urge his supporters and others wary of the COVID-19 vaccine to get it.

“I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox News on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEDT). “But you know again, we have our freedoms, and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also. But it’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”

As president, Trump took personal credit for “operation warp speed” – the rapid development of covid vaccinations – and his administration did help to fund the Moderna vaccine, although it did not back frontrunner Pfizer.

Donald Trump’ says his supporters should get the COVID-19 vaccine. Credit:AP

However, he was not vaccinated publicly as President Joe Biden was, alongside other former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, instead releasing a statement in February saying he’d been vaccinated in January.

He is the only former president who does not appear in a new public health campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr Deborah Birx and Dr Anthony Fauci listen to Trump’s coronavirus briefing on March 20, 2020. Credit:Getty

Trump also told the Fox news host Maria Bartiromo that he would wait until after congressional elections in November 2022 to decide if he’ll make another run for the White House.

“I think we have a very, very good chance of taking back the House,” Trump said. “You have a good chance to take back the Senate and frankly, we’ll make our decision after that.”

Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that his supporters appeared ready to back him again if he ran.

“Based on every poll, they want me to run again, but we’re going to take a look and we’ll see,” Trump said.

In a separate interview with ABC News, Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator Dr Deborah Birx said the moment the former president speculated about injecting bleach to treat COVID-19 still haunts her.

“Frankly, I didn’t know how to handle that episode” she said. “I still think about it every day.”

When Trump asked Birx last April if disinfectant or ultraviolent light could cure the disease, she only said neither could be used “as a treatment.”

“You can see how extraordinarily uncomfortable I was,” she said. “Those who have served in the military know there are discussions you have in private with your commanding officers and there are discussions you have in public.”

Reuters, Bloomberg, Washington Post

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