President Trump said Wednesday he would take the coronavirus vaccine first — if he was asked to.
Trump was speaking to Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel just hours after announcing a $2 billion order for 100 million doses of a potential vaccine for the virus from Pfizer.
But the president added that while he wanted to reassure the public, he did not want to appear “selfish.”
“Well, you know the way it works,” Trump answered. “If I’m the first one they’ll say, ‘He’s so selfish, he wanted to get the vaccine first.’ And then other people would say, ‘Hey, that’s a brave thing to do.’”
“I would absolutely if they wanted me to and they thought it was right, I’d take it first or I’d take it last.”
“Either way I’d lose on that one, right?” he added. “If I don’t take it they’ll say, ‘He doesn’t believe in the program.’ But whatever I think is best whatever we all agree is best, I would certainly do that.”
Trump said he was also encouraged by the development of therapeutic treatments for the virus, which re-emerged in some parts of the country after several states began lifting stay-at-home restrictions.
“You tell me, but I almost would prefer the therapeutics even first,” he told Siegel. “You go into a hospital, you make people better. But we’re doing very well with remdesivir and other things. The steroids are turning out to be great, plasma is turning out to be really good. We’ve made tremendous progress.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said during a White House briefing that Americans would get the vaccine for free under the government’s deal with Pfizer. He said the vaccine could be ready by next year.
