Â鶹´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Trump booed at Alabama rally after recommending supporters get vaccinated

Share
TORONTO -

While speaking at a rally in Alabama this weekend, former U.S. President Donald Trump was booed by supporters after he said he recommended they get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you gotta do what you gotta do,†Trump said, receiving cheers with the statement.

“But I recommend taking the vaccines. I did it, it’s good, take the vaccines,†he continued.

When supporters began to boo him, Trump waved a hand, saying, “That’s OK, that’s alright. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine. If it doesn’t work, you’ll be the first to know.â€

Trump received sharp criticism while in office for consistently down-playing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health risks associated with the virus.

His record on vaccination has also received criticism.

Trump has encouraged Americans to get vaccinated several times before. However, he received his own vaccination in private in January instead of taking the chance to set an example for Americans by receiving it in public, as many other politicians have done.

According to several surveys, Republicans are less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats, a partisan divide that highlights how the COVID-19 response has become politicized.

An, a non-profit that does polling, found that counties that voted for Trump in the 2020 U.S. election had a 35 per cent vaccination rate in early July compared to the 47 per cent vaccination rate of counties that voted for President Joe Biden.

Another , which conducts research on the intersection of religion and public policy, in late July found that the group most likely to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, at 46 per cent, was Republicans who consume far-right television programs.

The results found that Republicans who have embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory — a wide-ranging fiction that believes the word is run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles and that Trump will save America from them — were also significantly more likely to reject the vaccine, at 37 per cent, than Republicans who do not believe in QAnon.

Trump’s weekend rally took place in Cullman, Ala., which declared a state of emergency last Thursday due to rising COVID-19 cases.

Local authorities had expressed concern prior to Trump’s rally that it could become a super-spreader event.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

An Edmonton man says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was injured by members of the Edmonton Police Service last year.

The brother of a 27-year-old man who was fatally shot in Scarborough over the weekend has been arrested and charged in connection with his death, say police.

Ontario's police watchdog has decided there are no grounds to believe Sudbury police committed a crime during a difficult arrest in May where the suspect's neck was broken.

Local Spotlight

Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.