The White House press secretary endorsed former President Donald Trump's recent promotion of COVID-19 vaccines.
"Just going to say that the vaccines are safe and effective." Psaki said Merry Christmas eve.
In a new interview, Trump said the vaccine was one of the greatest achievements of mankind. The clip from the interview was responded to by Psaki.
Jen Psaki is the Press Sec.
The former president's administration injected billions of dollars into the program to speed up the development of the vaccine. It can take a long time to develop a vaccine. The FDA authorized the Moderna and BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines for emergency use less than a year after the US first detected COVID-19.
Trump has taken credit for the rapid development of vaccines. The former president told Owens that he came up with a vaccine that was very good.
Trump pushed back when Owens questioned the vaccine.
The vaccine worked. "But some people aren't taking it." The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take their vaccine.
He said that if you take the vaccine, you're protected. The vaccine results are very good. It's a very minor form if you get it. People don't die when they take their vaccine.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to half of the US population is fully vaccineed. Many Americans, particularly Republicans, refuse to get the vaccine despite the fact that it's safe and effective. Trump was booed by his own supporters on Sunday after he revealed that he had received a booster shot.
Psaki appreciated the former president's comments during the White House press briefing.
The former president got the booster. He made clear in a recent interview that they are effective and safe. That is an important message for anyone to hear. This isn't a partisan issue. This is about saving lives and communicating accurate information. She said that the former president did that.
President Joe Biden gave credit to the Trump administration during a speech on Tuesday. Trump told Fox News that he was very appreciative of Biden's words, even though he hasn't publicly acknowledged that he was defeated by Biden in 2020.
"I think it was a great thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy," Trump said.
Psaki was asked if the White House would work with Trump on vaccine messaging.
I don't know if it requires a partnership. I think it's a good thing for the former president to be out there and say what's true about the efficacy of vaccines, which he did recently, and so on," she said.
