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President Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Jan. 12, 2021Donald J Trump / YouTube

(LifeSiteNews) – Former President Donald Trump blasted the idea of booster shots for the COVID-19 vaccine as sounding like a “money-making operation for Pfizer” in his most recent appearance on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria.

“Think of the money involved,” he said. “You know, when these [vaccines] first came out they were ‘good for life,’ then they were good for a year or two, and I could see the writing on the wall – I could see the dollar signs in their eyes of that guy that runs Pfizer.”

On August 18, citing concerns about “variants,” the U.S. government announced it will begin rolling out coronavirus booster shots, recommending that people take a third shot eight months after their second shot of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

“The recommendation for a booster shot reflects heightened concern over the highly contagious Delta variant and data showing initial immunity wanes over time,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “‘It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise,’ Mr. Biden said of the booster shots.”

Fox’s Maria Bartiromo asked Trump what he thought about the current state of vaccination in the U.S., and whether or not people should have to show proof of vaccination in order to access services. Trump did not comment directly on vaccine passports in this interview.

However, Trump  voiced his opinion that the Biden administration has failed in its handling of the COVID-19 situation. Commenting on the soon-to-be available boosters, Trump said, “That sounds to me like a money-making operation for Pfizer.”

In Trump’s estimation, the prospect of continual boosters is an attempt to confirm a continual influx of funds for pharmaceutical companies. He added, “Think of the money involved. An extra shot … How good a business is that? If you’re a pure businessman, you’d say, ‘you know what, let’s give them another shot,’ that’s another $10 billion of money coming in — the whole thing is crazy.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not formally recommended the booster shots yet, but is expected to. The Pfizer vaccine is also expected to receive full FDA approval this fall, despite the many deaths and injuries associated with the experimental shot. All coronavirus vaccines currently available in the U.S. only have Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), which has not stopped the Biden administration from mandating them for the military and federal workers.

“According to Kaiser Health News, Pfizer lacks late-stage clinical trial results to confirm a booster will work against COVID variants, including Delta,” which supposedly accounts for 93 percent of new infections across the U.S., Children’s Health Defense reported. “Pfizer in July announced its global phase 3 trial — which assesses the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity of a third dose — but the trial’s completion date isn’t until 2022. Phase 3 results generally are required before regulatory approval.”

Trump has often praised and taken credit for the COVID-19 vaccines, having launched “Operation Warp Speed” as president, and he touted the rushed approval given to these vaccines during his 2020 campaign.

In March of this year, Trump said in an interview with Fox News that he recommends people receive the experimental shots.

“I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it. And a lot of those people voted for me, frankly. But, you know, again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also.”

U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday that data from Israel on COVID-19 vaccines shows that the efficacy of the shots is reduced in people who received their vaccines early.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said during a Wednesday briefing: “Around the six-month mark in the data, you start to see increases in mild to moderate infection, our anticipation is that if the trajectory that we are seeing continues, that we will likely see in the future an increase in breakthrough hospitalizations and breakthrough deaths.”

LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.