- Donald Trump on Tuesday said he "would recommend" taking a COVID-19 vaccine, calling it "safe."
- Dr. Anthony Fauci had urged Trump to help persuade vaccine-hesitant Republicans to get the shot.
- Trump got vaccinated in secret, unlike other former presidents who got vaccinated on live TV.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday told people to get a COVID-19 vaccine after avoiding questions about it for months and getting his own shot in secret.
"I would recommend it, and 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 told the Fox News host Maria Bartiromo during a phone interview.
"It is a great vaccine. It is a safe vaccine, and it is something that works."
During his presidency Trump declined to specify a date when he would be getting vaccinated and did not join former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama in pledging to get the vaccine live on TV.
Instead, Trump and the first lady Melania Trump were vaccinated in secret in the White House in January. The news emerged only after The New York Times reported the development on March 1.
Trump was also not present in a pro-vaccine public-service announcement that aired earlier this month. A representative for the Ad Council, which produced the campaign, told Insider last week that the project started in December, when Trump was still president, and began filming in Washington, DC, after Joe Biden's inauguration, which Trump did not attend.
The ad sees all the living former presidents and their wives getting the vaccine. It not clear whether Trump was asked to join the campaign.
Health officials are concerned that Republicans are far less likely to get COVID-19 vaccinations than other political groups.
A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey found that 49% of Republican men said they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine, versus just 6% of Democratic men who said they wouldn't get a vaccine.
A recent CBS poll also found that as many as one in three Republicans were not planning to get vaccinated.
On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious-disease expert, told the Fox News host Chris Wallace that Trump needed to reach out to his followers to promote the vaccines.
"It would be very helpful for the effort for that to happen," he said. "I'm very surprised by the number of Republicans who say they won't get vaccinated."
Trump did endorse vaccines during his February 28 speech at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference, but he used fewer words than in his Fox News phone-in. "Everybody go get your shot," Trump told the CPAC crowd.
Bar that appearance, Trump has largely been silent on recommending taking COVID-19 vaccines and has instead focused on claiming responsibility for their existence.
"I hope everyone remembers when they're getting the COVID-19 ... vaccine, that if I wasn't president, you wouldn't be getting that beautiful 'shot' for 5 years, at best," he said in a statement issued from his personal office based in Florida last week.
He reiterated that claim Tuesday, telling Fox News: "We have been working around the clock, and what I got the FDA to do, this would have happened ... in many, many years from now if I didn't get involved."
Jen Psaki, the current White House press secretary, has repeatedly refused to give Trump any credit for the existence of the vaccine, however, and Biden has slammed Trump's efforts to roll out the vaccine.
Speaking with reporters on Friday, Psaki instead praised what she described as a "Herculean incredible effort by science and by medical experts."
