Former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to an adviser.
News that the Trumps have already been vaccinated broke on Monday, a day after the former president gave his first public address since leaving the presidency on Jan. 20. Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida, where he encouraged “everybody” to get the vaccine.
The couple received their first doses in January when they were still in the White House, an adviser told the Washington Examiner. The couple has since been given their second inoculations, according to the Hill. It remains unclear whether the couple received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
Both were infected with COVID-19 last September, and the former president was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a few days before he recovered.
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During his CPAC appearance, Trump urged the crowd to get vaccinated and touted the work that his administration did to get vaccines approved and rolled out quickly.
“We took care of a lot of people, including, I guess, on Dec. 21, we took care of Joe Biden because he got his shot. He got his vaccine,” Trump told the crowd. “So, everybody, go get your shot.”
Operation Warp Speed, which was started on May 15, 2020, facilitated the development of the vaccines just one year after the first case of COVID-19 was identified. The traditional timeline for developing a vaccine to fight a novel pathogen is five to 10 years.
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The revelation of Trump’s January vaccination comes just days after the Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which only requires one shot, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The company’s CEO said on Monday that doses of the vaccine will begin being distributed to people in the United States in the next 24-48 hours.
