Social media users criticized Donald Trump for trying to take credit for the success of Covid-19 vaccine. The former president was met with backlash after he said he hoped "Americans remember" that they would not have received the Covid-19 jab for "five years" had it been not for him.
Trump made the comments in a statement issued on Wednesday. He also used the presidential seal for the statement.
"I hope that 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. I hope everyone remembers!" Trump said in the statement, which was shared on Twitter.
In the initial months of the pandemic, Trump had maintained that Covid-19 was not serious and also said that it "one day disappear" like "a miracle." The U.S. remains the worst-affected country due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The U.S. recorded over 29 million cases of the novel coronavirus and 528,000 deaths.
Following Wednesday's statement, people took to Twitter to say they did not agree with Trump's comments and called him out for taking credit for the vaccine. Some users also criticized the former president for his poor handling of the pandemic.
"They hid 20 million shots and the Pfizer ceo said no 'operation warp speed' money was taken for it. There was absolutely no plan on place for distribution and no more vaccines ordered when Biden got to office," one Twitter user wrote.
"What I remember is you trying to take credit for all good, and blame for anything bad. You left with NO distribution plan. And you will soon be indicted for your obvious crimes," another user stated.
"We will never know how many of the over 500,000 deaths could have been saved if there had been COMPETENCE in the White House. IT. DID. NOT. HAVE. TO. BE. THIS. BAD," a third Twitter user wrote.
"I hope everyone remembers whose fault it was that the virus spread uncontrollably to the tune of 500k dead when a three week stay at home at the beginning and mask/distancing mandate would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives," one user commented.
