U.S. President Donald Trump received a flu vaccination and a Covid vaccination booster this week, according to White House physician — and US Navy captain — Sean Barbabella, who conducted Trump’s annual exam. (It was Trump’s second annual exam this year.)
Trump got a Covid vaccine today. pic.twitter.com/vwXZXOwCdY
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 11, 2025
News of Trump’s Covid vaccination predictably received a great deal of commentary online, especially as his controversial Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a noted vaccine skeptic, holding numerous positions that are opposed by a majority in the medical and scientific communities.
Kennedy’s HHS and the Trump administration have also cancelled $500 million funding for research into mRNA vaccines, stating that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses.”
Kennedy’s skepticism also appears to cut against the convictions of Trump himself, who once calling the Covid vaccine “one of the greatest achievements of mankind.”
(See the interview below from 2021, after Operation Warp Speed, which the first Trump administration empowered, aided the swift development and distribution of the vaccines.)
This interview is sending shockwaves through the anti-vax MAGAs this morning. “The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements of mankind .. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones who don’t take the vaccine.” pic.twitter.com/ImCnNfJAiu
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 23, 2021
[NOTE: The CDC recently reconfigured its Covid vaccine recommendations, while still recommending the vaccine for those over 65, which puts Trump’s receipt of the vaccine within the guidelines and therefore uncontroversial — at least as far as any vaccine news can be uncontroversial.]
Anti-vaxxers in the comments lamented Trump’s decision and worried over his health, with some calling his decision to receive the booster “dumb” — despite the CDC recommendations.
Others — less absolutist about their anti-vaxx stance — said their resistance to vaccination was about the mandate, maintaining that it should be a personal choice with no prohibitions for those who refuse.
(One example among many in the comments reads: “Maybe you didn’t listen when we said don’t force it on us. Choice is choice. Also makes sense to take that risk when you’re at that age.” Another wrote: “He got the vaccine a long time ago. But I won’t get it.”)
Many doctors argue that the personal choice (no mandates) argument neglects the idea that the prevention of spread and the potential eradication of a virus through vaccination or mass immunization depends on mass participation by the populace, which is why schools require certain vaccinations — to ensure the safety of the whole student population.