Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/21/dear-republicans-trump-wants-you-get-vaccinated-thats-not-fake-news/

February: 'Everybody, go get your shot”

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump said, “We took care of a lot of people — including, I guess, on December 21st, we took care of Joe Biden, because he got his shot, he got his vaccine. … It shows you how unpainful that vaccine shot is.”

Trump added: “So everybody, go get your shot.”

March: ‘I would recommend it to’ my vaccine-skeptic allies

In a Fox News interview, Trump said, “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.” He also repudiated claims that the vaccines aren’t safe: “It’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”

Mid-April: Defended safety of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

After the federal government paused its authorization of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, in light of rare blood-clotting issue which vaccine skeptics seized upon, Trump excoriated the decision and pointed to the minimal adverse effects.

“The federal pause on the J&J shot makes no sense,” Trump said, adding: “Just six people out of the nearly 7 million who’ve gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine reported blood clots.”

Trump even suggested that the move would feed the kind of anti-vaccine skepticism that was on the rise in his base. (Allies such as Tucker Carlson have often pointed to unverified reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS.) “Indeed, this moronic move is a gift to the anti-vax movement,” Trump said. “The science bureaucrats are fueling that deranged pseudoscience.”

Late April: ‘The vaccine is a great thing, and people should take advantage of it’

Trump told the New York Post: “I’m all in favor of the vaccine. It’s one of the great achievements, a true miracle, and not only for the United States. We’re saving tens of millions of lives throughout the world. We’re saving entire countries.”

Trump added that, “The vaccine is a great thing, and people should take advantage of it,” while adding that it shouldn’t be mandated.

July: ‘I recommend you take it’

At a rally in Arizona, Trump said, “I recommend you take it, but I also believe in your freedoms 100 percent.”

Mid-August: ‘Once you get the vaccine, you get better’

In the same interview in which Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo ultimately goaded Trump into initially questioning the boosters, Trump began by offering one of his most forceful pro-vaccine statements.

“Now one thing: When you have the vaccine, people that do [get infected] — and it’s a very small number relatively, but people that do get it — get better much quicker,” Trump said. “And it’s very important to know. They don’t get nearly as sick, and they get better. [Sen.] Lindsey Graham is an example. He said, if I didn’t have this vaccine, I would have died.” Story continues below advertisement

“So once you get the vaccine, you get better,” Trump added.

Late August: ‘Take the vaccines. … It is working.’

At a rally in Alabama shortly after the Bartiromo interview, Trump again broadly promoted vaccines — even playing off those who booed him for it.

“I recommend take the vaccines,” he said. “It’s good. I did it. Take the vaccines.”

As some in the crowd jeered, Trump took care to qualify his remarks by noting that this is about personal choice. But then he re-upped the message. “You got — no, that’s okay. That’s all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine,” Trump said, before defusing the situation with a joke: “If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know.”

He added: “But it is working.”

September: ‘The vaccines do work. … It’s tremendously successful.'

“The vaccines do work,” Trump said on a conservative talk-radio show. “And they are effective. So here’s my thing: I think I saved millions and millions of lives around the world.”

He added: “And now countries are using our vaccines, and it’s tremendous. It’s tremendously successful.”

December: Don’t let the libs win when you promote vaccine skepticism

At an event with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in Dallas, Trump disclosed that he got a booster shot after all. He did so despite his August comments about a Big Pharma money-grab and despite having told the Wall Street Journal in September that he probably wouldn’t get it. (“I feel like I’m in good shape from that standpoint; I probably won’t. … I’m not against it, but it’s probably not for me.”) Story continues below advertisement

And despite again being jeered for his vaccine promotion, Trump said that it was a small portion of the audience. He also said — as he had before — that feeding vaccine skepticism was counterproductive.

“What we’ve done is historic,” he said. “Don’t let them take away — don’t take it away from ourselves. You’re playing right into their hands when you sort of like, ‘Oh, the vaccine.’ ”

We shall see if his supporters heed his advice — or keep playing into the left’s hands.