Fauci: It would be a ‘game-changer’ if Trump endorses Covid vaccine [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Dr. Anthony Fauci said that it would be a “game-changer” if President Trump will encourage his supporters to get vaccinated.
• A poll released last week revealed that 47 percent of Republicans are reluctant to get the shots.
• Dr. Fauci warned that Europe’s surging coronavirus case trends tend to be a few weeks ahead of similar trends in the U.S.

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Sunday that a new wave of COVID-19 infections could be coming that’s why he urges former President Donald Trump to advise his supporters to be vaccinated.

Fauci told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” about the surges across the European Union. He also warned that Europe’s case trends tend to be a few weeks ahead of similar trends in the U.S, the Hill reported.

Europe “always seems to be a few weeks ahead of us, so it was “absolutely no time to declare victory” over the virus, ” Fauci told Wallace,

“They thought they were home free, and they weren’t, and now they are seeing cases going up,” he said of European health officials.

When asked by Wallace if there’s something more that could be done to help fight vaccine skepticism in the U.S., Fauci said Trump should urge his supporters to get vaccinated.

“It would be very helpful for the effort for that to happen. I’m very surprised by the number of Republicans who say they won’t get vaccinated,” the doctor said, referring to last week’s poll.

“I think it would make all the difference in the world” if Trump were to express support for vaccines, he said. “He’s a widely popular person among Republicans.”

“I just don’t get it, Chris, why they don’t want to get vaccinated,” he added.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Fauci said that it’s “disturbing” that Trump supporters are not getting vaccinated.

“We’ve got to dissociate political persuasion from commonsense, no-brainer public health things,” he said. “[Vaccines have] rescued us from smallpox, from polio, from measles,” he added. “What is the problem here?”

A PBS poll conducted Thursday revealed that almost 50 percent of all Republican men said they would not get the COVID-19 shot.

According to The Hill, more than 101 million doses of the vaccine have already been administered in the U.S. so far.

Last week, President Biden promised that all American adults would be eligible to receive the vaccine by May 1.

Source: The Hill