Trump Says Americans ‘Refuse to Get Vaccinated’ Due to Mistrust of Biden Administrator

Former President Donald Trump released a statement on Sunday claiming Americans “refused” to get vaccinated against the coronavirus due to mistrust of the Biden administration, media and presidential election results from 2020.

“Joe Biden kept talking about the quality of his work on the distribution of the vaccine developed by Operation Warp Speed ​​or, quite simply, by the Trump administration. He is not doing well at all,” he said. Trump’s statement said.

“He’s behind schedule, and people are refusing to take the vaccine because they don’t trust his administration, they don’t trust the election results, and they sure don’t trust the Fake News, who refuse to tell the truth, ”the statement added.

Although the Trump administration has been criticized for a slow rollout of the vaccine that was significantly behind expectations in December and January, the former president has continuously praised his COVID-19 response team and pointed the finger at President Joe Biden. Since leaving office, Trump has also continued to defend the baseless conspiracy theory that the elections were stolen due to massive voter fraud.

Trump’s statement on Sunday comes just two weeks after the Biden administration failed to meet its vaccination target to partially inoculate at least 70 percent of Americans by July 4. Still, more than 161 million people are fully vaccinated and 68 percent of adults have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, some 90 million eligible people have yet to receive at least one injection.

Now, the Biden administration scrambles to vaccinate more Americans as COVID-19 cases rise across the country due to the highly contagious Delta variant.

According to a report released by the CDC on Friday, coronavirus cases in the United States have increased by almost 70% and hospitalizations by 36% compared to the previous week. At least 38 states have seen a 50% increase in new cases over the past week, with the variant appearing to spread fastest among unvaccinated populations.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on Sunday that 99.5% of new deaths from COVID-19 are among unvaccinated people, and expressed concern that the problem could worsen quickly.

“I’m worried about what will happen because we are seeing an increase in cases among the unvaccinated in particular. And if, if you are vaccinated, you are very well protected against hospitalization and death, unfortunately that is not true if you are not vaccinated, “Murthy told CNN on Sunday. State of the Union.

The Biden administration said part of the blame lies with social media companies, saying Americans refuse to be vaccinated due to the rapid spread of disinformation online.

On Friday, Biden said the amount of misinformation on Facebook and other social media sites was “killing people,” and added that “the only pandemic we have is among the [the] unvaccinated population “.

In response, Facebook released a statement saying that 85% of its users were vaccinated or planning to be vaccinated, and the administration was looking for scapegoats for missing their vaccine targets.

Christopher Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said on Sunday that if Facebook and other social media companies can provide useful information about the pandemic and vaccine safety, misinformation is likely to be continue to spread.

Krebs added that the amount of vaccine misinformation online is akin to how misinformation about the 2020 presidential election has spread.

“What we see here is an ecosystem of information providers. Part is politically motivated. Part is the anti-vax community. Part is profit. And I tend to believe that it is. a lot going on here, ”he said in an interview with CBS on Sunday.

News week contacted the White House for further comment, but did not receive a response in time for the publication.