Dr. Fauci Blames Trump for ‘Poisoning the Well’ When it Comes to Vaccine Hesitancy

Dr. Anthony Fauci blamed former President Donald Trump for vaccine hesitancy amongst his supporters, saying he poisoned the well early on.

Fauci sat down with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Monday, addressing the recent surge in Covid-19 cases due to the highly contagious omicron variant.

The infectious disease expert first praised the former president for urging his supporters to get boosted, highlighting that Trump revealed he had received the third shot himself.

Fauci, however, added that Trump’s vaccine push may be too little too late, pointing to the fact that the former president was booed when he and Bill O’Reilly shared their vaccine statuses while on tour together.

“I was stunned by the fact that he’s doing that, and he’s getting booed in some places for doing that,” Fauci told Collins. “Which means that you know, poisoning the well early on about, even not being enthusiastic or outright not pushing vaccines and discouraging vaccines now has the lingering effect.”

Fauci went on to say that even those who have been “following his every word” are now pushing back and refusing to listen to the former president.

“Really tells you the strength of the divisiveness in our society, which I’ve always said to me is the biggest stumbling block about getting this pandemic under control,” he added. “It really is no place for divisiveness politically when you have a classical historical unprecedented pandemic. I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Fauci made similar comments during an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday, in which he noted “how recalcitrant” Trump supporters are “about being told what they should do.”

Watch above, via CNN.