Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama — all living former presidents, with the exception of Donald Trump — banded together recently for a new ad campaign encouraging Americans to get COVID-19 vaccines. Although millions of vaccine doses have already been administered around the country, the point of having enough on hand for every American adult is still about a couple of months out, but in the meantime, many Americans are already eligible in their home states to receive the vaccine.
There are many lingering issues from the COVID-19 pandemic besides the public health concerns that are addressed by vaccines — in February, unemployment was still higher than pre-pandemic levels, and total non-farm payroll employment across the country was still significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels. But, the vaccine is a critical tool.
In one of the newly released ads, which was released by the public service announcement-oriented Ad Council, Obama commented as follows:
‘This vaccine means hope. It will protect you and those you love from this dangerous and deadly disease.’
In the same ad, Bush added the following:
‘In order to get rid of this pandemic, it’s important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated.’
Carter added that he himself is “getting vaccinated because we want this pandemic to end as soon as possible.”
Watch that ad below:
In the other ad, which appears to have been filmed around the time of President Joe Biden’s inauguration in late January, Bush reiterates that “the science is clear” that the vaccines “will protect you and those you love from this dangerous and deadly disease.”
Watch that informative ad below:
Trump got vaccinated, but he did not do so on camera, and polling has found the highest levels of hesitancy towards the vaccine among white Republicans. This week, Trump released a statement insisting that Americans might never have gotten the vaccine at all if not for the work of his own now defunct presidential administration, which is just not true. As he petulantly put it, “if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all.” This rhetoric is hopelessly delusional nonsense. While the financial support for the vaccine development process from the Trump administration was important, it seems like a bare minimum! Scientists did the actual work.
Trump puts out a sad statement on presidential letterhead pleading for credit for COVID vaccinehttps://t.co/UTGU5So0ZB
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) March 11, 2021
