President Donald Trump is widely reported in the media to have endorsed herd immunity: “Once you get to a certain number — we use the word ‘herd,’ right? Once you get to a certain number it’s going to go away, so you know it doesn’t have to be.” However, those two lines were fraudulently taken out of their context.
Laura Ingraham asked Trump on Aug. 31 about a problem with people who already don’t like flu vaccines, possibly reacting negatively to Trump’s push for COVID vaccines. Trump then refers to herd immunity being developed from vaccines, even though some won’t take any vaccine: “Once you get to a certain number — we use the word ‘herd,’ right? Once you get to a certain number it’s going to go away, so you know it doesn’t have to be. But yeah, a lot of people are not going to want to do it, a lot of people don’t want to do the flu vaccine. You know I never had the flu, but I never had a shot!” The media have omitted the question on vaccines put to Trump, along with the third sentence, which refers back to the vaccine matter.
