Back when he was President of the United States, Donald Trump mostly pretended COVID-19 did not exist.
Toward the end of his only term in office, the world's most famous sociopath said the media was overhyping this virus in order to help Joe Biden win the general election.
But now that three different vaccines are on the market and Americans are starting to protect themselves from this deadly outbreak?
Trump wants full credit for getting the country to this point.
Still banned from Twitter, Trump released a hilariously self-serving and pathetic statement on Wednesday -- which also managed to be racist at the same time!
“I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that 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,” he wrote.
Concluded this very lonely and petty old man:
“I hope everyone remembers!”
The message came hours after President Biden announced his administration would order another 100 million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to bolster the nation’s efforts to protect Americans.
This, on top of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have been available to various adults since January.
At this point, close to 600,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
There's hope, however.
There are now more than 62 million people in the country who have received at least one vaccine dose, while nearly 33 million are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s shot tracker.
That’s about 19% and 10% of the population, respectively, according to data last updated on Wednesday.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna’s two-dose coronavirus vaccines were developed and authorized for emergency use while Trump was in office.
Moderna received funding for design and testing under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, while Pfizer had an advance-purchase agreement.
As you might expect, there's been some tension between the Biden administration and some in the former Trump administration, the latter of whom do want credit for helping to vaccinate so many citizens.
"We're delighted that more Americans are getting the vaccine," said Paul Mango, former deputy chief of staff for policy at Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.
"We just don't understand why they (the Biden administration) have to celebrate it by trashing what we did," he added this week.
Trump, of course, often used his power in office to downplay the dangers of the virus and politicized mask wearing.
He's directly responsible for an untold numberr of deaths.
"I don't think anyone deserves credit when half a million people in the country have died of this pandemic," White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said on this topic.
As for the Commander-in-Chief himself?
"We're moving in the right direction, though, despite the mess we inherited from the previous administration, which left us with no real plan to vaccinate all Americans," Biden said in a February 25 speech.
Similarly, Jeff Zients -- coordinator of Biden's COVID-19 task force -- 60 Minutes late last month that he gives credit to scientists and people who enrolled in the vaccine trials.
Not the Trump administration.
"The bad news is there really was no plan to ramp up the supply of those vaccines," he said on this program.
At this point, Biden says that every American over the age of 16 who wants a shot will be able to get one by mid-May.
That's really the important thing here.
Let's not lose sight of it.