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‘The President Is Trying to Protect People From Death’: Psaki Schools Fox News Host Wanting a COVID ‘Off-Ramp’ From Biden
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave Fox News an interview Thursday morning, and was forced to explain to the conservative cable entertainment channel’s hosts the basics of the coronavirus pandemic.
Host Dana Perino asked if President Biden will provide “an off-ramp” from COVID for Americans – as if he has control over when the pandemic will end, especially as Fox News is among the greatest sources of vaccine disinformation. In fact, she complained that “a lot of unvaccinated feel like they’re being the scapegoats,” and “second-class citizens.”
After pointing to a relaxing of mandates in Israel, the UK, ands other parts of Europe Perino almost chastised President Biden for seeming “to be going in a different direction” by sending out masks (which is inaccurate) and tests.
“Can you envision – will the President provide America an off-ramp to COVID and especially for those, the unvaccinated, because the more we find out like from the CDC saying that it does – you are more protected if you already had the virus, even if you are unvaccinated, that just came out.”
Perino neglected to say that CDC also said the COVID vaccines provide greater protection than just recovering from COVID but remaining unvaccinated, but she did encourage vaccination.
“So I’m looking for a question or an answer on an off-ramp for Americans,” Perino pressed, “because a lot of unvaccinated feel like they’re being the scapegoats and second-class citizens, even though I want people to be vaccinated so that they’re protected.”
“Sure, well, first, let me say, 75% of the country is fully vaccinated,” Psaki replied. “All of those people did not vote for Joe Biden and certainly if they’re not all, Democrats, we know that mathematically.”
“What the President’s trying to do is protect the country and protect people from death,” Psaki continued, stressing the most basic information she could. “We also know in from the CDC and from our scientists that you’re 17 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 times more likely to die if you are not vaccinated. So we’re trying to provide people accurate information. At the same time, Dana, I think you make a really important point. We don’t want to live like this. You heard the President say, we don’t want to live like this forever. We want to get back to a point where we’re not wearing masks, of course, where we’re not worried about our kids being in school,” she added.
Watch:
Fox News asks Jen Psaki if President Biden will "provide America an off-ramp to COVID," adding "a lot of unvaccinated feel like they're being the scapegoats and second-class citizens."pic.twitter.com/7b8gLFWPVD
— David Badash (@davidbadash) January 20, 2022
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