Trump triggers loud booing with praise of Pfizer CEO

President Donald Trump set off loud booing when he praised Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla recently at a White House reception for Black History Month.

“We also have the head of Pfizer here, so I want to thank him. One of the great great people, one of the great businessmen,” Trump said as the crowd loudly booed. The president seemed amused by the reaction and even chuckled as he continued: “Thank you Albert, thank you. Thank you very much.”

Trump’s observance of Black History Month raised eyebrows given his opposition to DEI ideology. Last month, the Pentagon scrapped Black History Month, Pride Month, and all other identity months.

But what most surprised observers was Bourla’s presence at the White House and the warm praise he received from Trump. The Pfizer CEO is reviled among many Americans for producing the experimental COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, which he falsely told the public was safe and effective. However, Bourla has made efforts to cozy up to the Trump administration, first meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election and more recently with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Bourla: Kennedy ‘tempered his views on vaccines’

Kennedy has been one of the loudest critics of the COVID-19 vaccine and Pfizer. But Bourla says Kennedy “tempered a lot of his previous statements” when the two had dinner in December and “was very careful what he said about vaccines.”

“I would be very happy if [Kennedy] would say he saw the data and like 99.9 percent [of] scientists these things have been [proven to be safe], [but] he didn’t,” Bourla told the Financial Times. “But what he said compared to what he was saying a few months back are day and night. He didn’t go the extra mile — I was disappointed to hear that. 

“[Kennedy] also said multiple times that ‘I will implement the policies of the president and I will tell you that the last thing the president wants to see is a health crisis,”’ added Bourla.

The pharma executive similarly told Yahoo Finance that Kennedy has “tempered” his stance on vaccines.

"Mr. Kennedy had very modest views,” said Bourla. “So, he tempered his views on vaccines, at least in our discussions, very much. If he will do things to try and undermine the capability of vaccines, I think the medical community, the payers . . . will all oppose him.”

Kennedy reverses opposition to MMR vaccine

Bourla was proven correct on Sunday when Kennedy penned an op-ed reversing his opposition to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine while stressing the importance of nutrition and personal choice in vaccination. After first touting vitamin A as a therapeutic that can help reduce mortality, the HHS secretary recommended parents vaccinate their children with the MMR shot—though he emphasized that the decision is “a personal one.”

As covered by the Gold Report, Kennedy did emphasize the role of nutrition in protecting children from measles as he went through the history of the disease and how it was 98% eliminated due to better nutrition and sanitation. Kennedy also stressed medical freedom in his op-ed, stating that parents have the final say when it comes to childhood vaccinations.

Nonetheless, Kennedy's support for the MMR shot shocked his followers who remember him saying he would not give his children the MMR vaccine if they were young while downplaying the severity of measles.

“In 1964, there was about three or four hundred [children] who died [from measles] and they were almost all severely malnourished kids, mainly from the Mississippi Delta . . . It’s very, very hard to kill a healthy child with any infectious disease, but particularly with measles. And the World Health Organization now says vitamin A is an absolute cure for measles, which we didn’t know about back then."

Kennedy was also on record linking the MMR shot to autism. During a Q&A session at the Godspeak Cavalry Chapel in 2021, Kennedy offered proof of the connection.

“[Vaccination advocates] knew that a lot of mothers believe the MMR vaccine was causing autism. And they believed that by studying the MMR vaccine alone, isolating it from the other vaccines and studying it alone, they could exonerate that vaccine. And then they could use that to exonerate all the vaccines. So they did a study where they just isolated the MMR vaccine and they looked at children in Georgia, which is where CDC's headquarter was, had five scientists on it, who were their top scientists and what they found was when the data came back: black boys who got the MMR vaccine on time, which means under 36 months of age under three years had a 336% higher chance of getting autism diagnosis than children who did not get it on time,” he said.

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