Seasonal influenza vaccines are recommended because they help prevent illness and death. Dr. Robert Malone incorrectly suggested that the annual shots are only given in the U.S. to support vaccine manufacturing in case of an influenza pandemic.
Here’s what the president said in public remarks, interviews and tweets from Jan. 22 through March, often likening the novel coronavirus to the flu as a way of downplaying the danger.
President Donald Trump cast doubt on the value of influenza vaccines, saying he only got a flu shot because he was required to as president. “I don’t know if I should have. Who knows?” But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says each year the vaccine saves thousands of lives and prevents tens of thousands of hospitalizations.