Please verify your request* Advertisement Alex Azar, the former secretary of Health and Human Services under President Trump, is calling for Republicans to embrace and encourage Covid-19 vaccinations. In a piece for The New York Times Tuesday, Azar touts his role, and the Trump administration’s, in developing the vaccines and emphasizes that the shots are safe and effective. Azar also details some areas where he says officials could have done better, suggesting that they could have done more to address vaccine hesitancy and to explain that the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization means that the vaccines were held “to such high standards that the only real difference is that full approval requires steps like analyzing longer-term safety and efficacy data, and inspecting manufacturing facilities.”