Trump urges Americans to get vaccinated as he calls J&J pause ‘so stupid’

‘That’s the worst thing you could have done from a public-relations standpoint’

Former President Donald Trump has urged US residents to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and criticised the Biden administration for pausing the Johnson & Johnson treatment.

Speaking in an hour-long interview on Monday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Mr Trump, who had a stay in hospital last October after contracting coronavirus, revealed that he has been vaccinated.

When then asked by Hannity if he would encourage other US citizens to do the same, the former president replied: “I encourage them to take it,” and added: “Because I believe”.

He then revealed that drug companies “all want me to do a commercial because a lot of our people don’t want to take the vaccine”, but said that he was put off after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) paused rollout of the Johnson & Johnson jab last week.

“I call them and I say ‘let me ask you a question. You just did something six people out of 8 million people. Somebody said that tylenol, women’s birth control cause far more,’” Mr Trump said on Monday.

He was referring to the pause of the Johnson & Johnson jab, which was approved by the FDA and backed by the Biden administration after six people out of 6.8 million who had the vaccine reported blood clots, with one dying.

Following the pause, experts highlighted that the odds of developing blood clots with other medications is much higher, as the US National Blood Clot Alliance estimates that 1 in 1000 who take birth control pills will develop a clot.

The FDA has defended its decision by saying that they are investigating the blood clots out of an “abundance of caution”, adding that it should only last a few days.

“What the FDA did with Johnson & Johnson is so stupid,” Mr Trump said about the pause in his first televised sit-down interview since leaving office in January.

“That’s the worst thing you could have done from a public relations standpoint. And it probably even affects the other vaccines a little bit,” he added.

The former president then bizarrely claimed that “Pfizer is in with the FDA”, and suggested that is the reason for the Johnson & Johnson pause.

“So Pfizer got together, and I’ll tell you something, I think it is very suspect what they did with Johnson & Johnson,” he told Hannity.

“Because the only people that are happy about that are Pfizer and Moderna. The only people that are happy about that, cuz what they did is a terrible, terrible thing!”

The Independent has contacted Pfizer for comment.

Mr Trump once again teased the idea of running for president in 2024 during his interview with Hannity, saying he is considering it “beyond seriously” as he claimed that he is more popular now than he was during his four years in office.

“I am looking at it very seriously, beyond seriously,” Mr Trump told Hannity. “From a legal standpoint, I don’t want to really talk about it yet, it’s a little too soon.”

Mr Trump, who has been out of office for three months, revealed that what he has missed the most about leaving office was “helping people”.