Covid 19 coronavirus: Trump issues bizarre vaccine statement

Donald Trump looks back at journalists after welcoming Mongolian President Battulga Khaltmaa to the White House July 31, 2019. Photo / Getty Images

Former US president Donald Trump has injected himself back into the American debate, with a newly released statement in which he takes personal credit for the distribution of the coronavirus vaccines.

In a statement released this morning, Trump said he hopes people remember to give him credit for the vaccine, after half a million Americans died because of the virus.

According to Trump, the US would still not have a Covid-19 vaccine and "probably wouldn't be getting it at all" had he not been president.

this is the saddest thing i've ever read pic.twitter.com/kahJKNZAAW

— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 10, 2021

"I hope 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 five years at best, and probably wouldn't be getting it at all," Trump said in the short statement.

"I hope everyone remembers!" he added.

The statement was so brief it could almost have been a tweet, had Trump not been banned from the platform following the Capitol riots in January.

According to the office of US president Joe Biden, one in four adults in the US have so far been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Biden will make the first prime-time address of his presidency tomorrow to mark the one-year anniversary of the Covid-19 lockdowns and will use the moment to pitch toward the future and how prospects will be improved by the nearly $2 trillion aid package approved this week.

The virus aid package is one of the largest enhancements to the social safety net in decades. Besides aiming to stop the pandemic and jump-starting hiring, money in the bill is supposed to start fixing income inequality, halve child poverty, feed the hungry, save pensions, sustain public transit, let schools reopen with confidence and help repair state and local government finances.

The White House has repeatedly pointed to polling that suggests that the relief bill enjoys broad support among Democratic and Republican voters, even though not one GOP lawmaker signed on to support it. Biden wooed GOP senators to no avail, but some Republicans feel the White House's lack of compromise could hurt the administration down the road.

- With AP