During Tuesday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that “COVID isn’t over” conflicting with comments from President Biden made last September when he said the opposite.
“We have protections in place to protect staff and the President of the United States,” Jean-Pierre said. “COVID isn’t over. We’ve been very clear about that. Hundreds of Americans are dying every day, and cases are increasing right now, today.”
“That’s why we take commonsense measures, like COVID testing ahead of large indoor gatherings at the White House,” she continued. “And so, this is an important — an important issue that’s been important, when we’re talking about COVID and dealing with COVID and coming up with comprehensive ways to make sure that people get vaccinated. That’s something that the President dealt with from day one of his administration.”
“If I could just follow up very briefly on that,” a reporter said. “I’m curious if there was a reason that we still have the vaccine attestation rule, especially considering the very highly transmissible Omicron mutations that can elude most of the common vaccines.”
Jean-Pierre was unable to explain the reasoning behind the vaccine rule, instead just saying, “we listen to the experts, and we look at the data, and we — you know, we pay very close attention to science. And I just don’t have anything to say beyond that. That is something that our experts — we take their advice when it comes to things like that.”
Jean-Pierre’s comments directly contradict President Biden, who said during a September 2022 interview on “60 Minutes” that the COVID-19 pandemic is “over” in the United States.
“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. … But the pandemic is over,” Biden said.
The interview was done as Biden walked the floor of the Detroit Auto Show. As he gestured around the hall, Biden pointed out, “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.”
Biden on 60 Minutes last September:
“The pandemic is over.”pic.twitter.com/tCr0T3sARO
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 24, 2023