Trump booed at rally in Alabama after telling supporters to get vaccinated

Former President Donald Trump was booed at a rally in Alabama on Saturday after telling his supporters they should get the shot.

“And you know what? I totally believe in your freedoms. I do. You have to do what you have to do,” Trump said. “But, I recommend: take the vaccines. I did. It’s good. Take the vaccines.”

A few boos rang out from the rally crowd, which was largely maskless.

“No, it’s okay. It’s okay. You have your freedoms,” Trump said, echoing rhetoric from opponents of the mask and vaccine mandates. “But I happen to be taking the vaccine. If that doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know. Okay? I’ll call Alabama, I’ll say, hey, you know what? [the vaccine] work. But you have your freedoms which you must keep. We have to maintain that. “

Large swathes of the South are seeing an increase in Covid cases and hospitalizations due to the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. Cullman, where the rally took place, is seeing an increase in cases that matched its previous peak in late December. The city declared a Covid state of emergency on Thursday in order to provide additional emergency support for the rally.

Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate in the United States, with just over 36% of its population fully vaccinated, according to an NBC News tracker. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, said “unvaccinated people” are to blame for the resurgence of Covid in the state.

Nationally, the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid occur among unvaccinated Americans, The New York Times reported this month.

A Kaiser Family Foundation vaccine tracking survey released earlier this month found Republicans to be the second least likely demographic group to be vaccinated, only above uninsured Americans under 65. While 57% of Republicans have received at least one dose of the vaccine or say they will receive a photo as soon as possible, 40 percent say they will never do it, that they will only do it when necessary or that they are still in standby mode. This 40 percent total is the second highest of the 23 demographic groups surveyed.

Trump has already approved the vaccination, but often associated it with similar warnings. As recently as last week, after promoting the vaccines in an interview with Fox Business personality Maria Bartiromo, Trump claimed that the next booster shots recommended by the Biden administration were “a lucrative deal for Pfizer.” . (The Biden administration recommended booster shots for those who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.)

Pfizer, which Trump attacked in a similar fashion before, was not part of his administration’s “Operation Warp Speed,” the public-private partnership to accelerate vaccine development. Trump did not mention Moderna, which was part of the program.