WASHINGTON (AP) – The leader of the Trump administration’s vaccination program says people who have been infected with the coronavirus – a group that includes President Donald Trump – should get the vaccine.
Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, told CNN Union State on Sunday that the vaccine is safe for those who have recovered and offers stronger and potentially longer protection. than that of the virus.
“We know that the infection does not induce a very strong immune response and decreases over time. Therefore, I think that as a clear precaution it is advisable to get vaccinated because it is safe, ”he said. “I think people should be vaccinated, in fact.”
Trump is now one of the only senior U.S. officials not to have received the first of two vaccines that began being administered last week as part of the largest vaccination campaign in the country’s history. Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Received doses Friday. President-elect Joe Biden was due to receive his Monday.
They have all opted to publicize their injections as part of a campaign to convince a skeptical public that vaccines are safe and effective, in hopes of ending a pandemic that has killed more than 317,000 people in the United States. and the balloon has revolted life.
Trump, who in the past has leaked misinformation about the risks of the vaccine, tweeted earlier this month that he was “not scheduled” to take the vaccine, but hoped to “do it at the right time.” The White House says it is still discussing time with its doctors.
Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October and underwent experimental monoclonal antibody treatment which he credited for his rapid recovery.
An advisory committee from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said people who received this treatment should wait at least 90 days to be vaccinated to avoid possible interference.
“When the time comes, I’m sure he’ll still be willing to take it,” White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern echoed on Friday. “It’s just something we’re working on.”
Trump has spent the past week almost out of sight as he continues to stew about his election loss and raises increasingly extravagant schemes to stay in power. It is an approach that has baffled top aides who see his silence as a missed opportunity for the president, who leaves office on January 20, to claim credit for helping oversee the rapid development of the vaccine and to burn his legacy. .
Trump has also been criticized for not taking the vaccine himself as an example to help dispel concerns about his safety, especially among Republicans.
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first to receive authorization, “is safe and likely to be effective” in people who have been infected with COVID-19 and “should be offered independently of the history of previous symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 “. infection “.
Although a minimum waiting time between infection and vaccination is not recommended, as reinfection is rare in the three months following a person’s infection, the committee said people who tested positive in the previous 90 days “they can delay vaccination until near the end of this period, if desired.”
But advisers also recommended that those who received the type of treatment Trump underwent stop getting vaccinated for at least 90 days.
“Currently, there are no data on the safety and efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination in people who received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma as part of COVID-19 treatment,” they wrote., recommending that vaccination “be postponed for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information is available, to prevent interference with antibody treatment with vaccine-induced immune responses”
Surgeon General Jerome Adams quoted that recommendation on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday when asked if Trump planned to receive the shot on camera.
“From a scientific point of view, I will remind people that the president has had COVID for the last 90 days. He received the monoclonal antibodies. And that’s actually one of the scenarios where we tell people that maybe you should stop getting the vaccine, that you talk to your health care provider to know the right time, ”Adams said.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has given other explanations for the delay. Last week he told reporters that Trump was holding on, in part, to “prove to Americans that our priority is the most vulnerable.”
“The president wants to send a parallel message, which is, as you know, that our residents in long-term care facilities and our front-line workers are of paramount importance and he wants to set an example in that sense, ”he said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, is one of those who has recommended vaccinating Trump without delay.
“Although the president himself was infected and probably has antibodies that would probably be protective, we are not sure how long this protection will last. Therefore, to be doubly sure, I would recommend that he be vaccinated, ”he told ABC News.