Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she got the “Trump vaccine” and urged others to contemplate following suit as Arkansas experiences skyrocketing rates of COVID-19.
Sanders, who is now running for governor of Arkansas with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, said she decided to get vaccinated against the coronavirus “based on the advice of [her] doctor,” adding that she was “reassured after President Trump and his family were vaccinated.”
“Like many of you, I have had a lot of misinformation thrown at me by politicians and the media during the pandemic. And, like many of you, I spent a lot of time sorting through it all, trying to make the best decision I could for myself and my family,” Sanders wrote in a Sunday op-ed published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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The gubernatorial hopeful accused the New York Times, CNN, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris of encouraging vaccine hesitancy by questioning the Trump administration’s ability to produce safe and effective vaccines quickly.
“If President Biden, Vice President Harris, and others on the left truly care about increasing the vaccination rate and saving lives, they should admit they were wrong to cast doubt on Operation Warp Speed and give President Trump and his team the credit they are due for the development of a safe and effective vaccine in record time,” she said.
Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership forged under the Trump administration initiative designed to encourage the production of COVID-19 vaccines, provided billions of dollars in federal funding to multiple private companies, some of which developed vaccines that have since gained emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.
While praising Operation Warp Speed and touting the resultant vaccines as “safe and effective,” Sanders stopped short of explicitly urging readers to get vaccinated. The former press secretary referenced research indicating unvaccinated Arkansans are at risk of experiencing more serious cases of COVID-19, adding, “It’s clear that the Trump vaccine works and is saving lives.”
“I understand that the decision to be vaccinated is deeply personal and not an easy one to make. I have many friends who have expressed sincere concerns about being vaccinated, and it isn’t my place to tell them what to do,” she wrote, criticizing those “pundits and politicians” who “have resorted to bribing, mocking, and even name-calling to coerce people into taking the vaccine.”
Left-leaning localities have moved toward implementing restrictions to curb the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant, with Los Angeles reimposing its countywide mask mandate, even for vaccinated people, on July 15.
Many Republicans have balked at such restrictions, with governors of Texas, Florida, and other states banning vaccine passports.
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Arkansas, where just 36.18% of the population is fully vaccinated, has seen an increase in cases of COVID-19, with 2,015 new cases emerging within the last 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
Despite the surge, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has rejected calls to implement a vaccine mandate because it could cause “a greater reaction of negativity toward the government.” Hutchinson also said it was up to the state Legislature to determine whether to implement a mask mandate.
