Donald J. Trump joined Yahoo Finance for a wide-ranging conversation covering topics such as the U.S. economy, COVID-19 vaccines, cryptocurrencies, and his thinking on a third run for the presidency in 2024. The full interview will be released on Monday.
Former President Donald Trump has revealed which COVID-19 vaccine he received before leaving the White House.
"Well, I got the Pfizer and I would have been very happy with any of them," Trump told Yahoo Finance Live in a wide-ranging interview.
The Trump administration spent $18 billion dollars on Operation Warp Speed to develop and deliver multiple vaccine candidates from firms like Pfizer (PFE) Moderna (MRNA) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) although Pfizer developed its vaccine without any money from the U.S. government.
Trump contracted COVID last fall at the height of the 2020 presidential campaign.
"I had it, recovered from it pretty well. I don't think I had it like the press, like the media said, you know, they would try to make it difficult," the former president said. "It's not pleasant, but I had it."
He and his wife Melania, who also recovered from COVID last fall, received their vaccinations shortly before leaving Washington in January, but waited until last March to disclose that.
'I thought it would have been gone'
On Friday, deaths from COVID-19 in the United States topped 700,000, a grim milestone that makes the outbreak more deadly than the pandemics of 1918 and 1919.
"I thought it would have been gone long before now," the former president told Yahoo Finance.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently authorized COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, for Americans 65 years and older to protect against deadly variants of the virus.
Trump said he might get one, "If I felt that it was necessary and let's see where this whole thing is going."
Even though Trump's Operation Warp Speed is credited with advancing the vaccine's development and distribution in record time, the former president's supporters have been among the most resistant to the vaccine. At a recent rally in Cullman Alabama, attendees booed Trump when he recommended they get inoculated against COVID-19.
"I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you've got to do what you've got to do, but I recommend that you take the vaccines," Trump said at the time.
A CDC study showed unvaccinated people are more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who get the vaccines. From April to June, unvaccinated people accounted for 95% of all new cases and 92% of deaths from COVID. From June through July, the unvaccinated accounted for 82% of cases, 86% of hospitalizations, and 84% of deaths.
President Joe Biden's administration has issued new requirements for private businesses mandating their employees get vaccinated. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is still formulating ways to enforce the mandate.
In his interview, the former president expressed opposition to mandates, faulting Biden for anti-vaccine sentiment.
Adam Shapiro is co-anchor of Yahoo Finance Live 3pm to 5pm. Follow him on Twitter @Ajshaps
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