For how much the Biden administration loves to promote the COVID vaccine and boosters, it's all the more confounding that they can't seem to get on the same page when it comes to how often people need to keep getting the shot.
On Monday, after the White House and Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had tweeted about getting the booster over the holiday weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris entered the picture. As Sister Toldjah at our sister site of RedState put it, "Kamala Harris Reappears and Immediately Makes a Mess of Things."
In sharing information from vaccines.gov, the vice president told people to "make a plan" and sought to assure them that "one shot, once a year" is "all most people will need."
One shot, once a year—that’s all most people will need to stay protected from COVID year-long. Make a plan to get your shot at https://t.co/ddwWZdNCgg.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) November 28, 2022
People were not not buying it and definitely not thrilled to being told to keep getting vaccinated and boosted. There were over 8,000 replies taking issue with such a directive. Of the 1,664 retweets, 1,058 were quoted retweets.
She again tweeted on Tuesday urging people to get vaccinated and boosted, specifying with "an updated COVID vaccine."
Protect yourself this holiday season with an updated COVID vaccine. Visit https://t.co/ddwWZdNCgg to make your appointment now.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) November 29, 2022
Also on Tuesday, Health & Human Services Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tweeted from his official account telling people to get "make a plan to get one now"if it's been "over 2 months" since they got their last dose.
An updated COVID vaccine can help protect you from the worst outcomes of COVID. If it’s been over 2 months since your last dose, make a plan to get one now.
— Secretary Xavier Becerra (@SecBecerra) November 29, 2022
Find updated vaccines at https://t.co/b0lnuggpPW. pic.twitter.com/MQUdE921Du
The tweet was thoroughly ratioed, with over 3,700 replies of people questioning how it made sense for them to have to get vaccinated every two months, as the tweet made it sound like. Of the 862 retweets, 765 are quoted retweets, also taking issue. There's just a paltry 168 likes.
So, what is the timeline? And why aren't the vice president and HHS secretary on the same page here? What's even more telling about the failure to communicate is that they both shared information from vaccines.gov.
Yesterday the Vice President @VP told us that a covid booster is good for a year. Today the health secretary is telling us it’s only good for two months. Nobody will tell us its actual benefits or risks.
— Sarah Beth Burwick (@sarahbeth345) November 29, 2022
How can we be expected to believe a word from this administration? https://t.co/391AjtcCZ0
While it doesn't appear as if Becerra addressed the confusion directly in any subsequent tweets, he did issue another tweet on Wednesday.
Time to get your updated COVID vaccine if
— Secretary Xavier Becerra (@SecBecerra) November 30, 2022
1) You haven’t gotten the updated vaccine yet & had the primary series or original booster 2+ months ago
2) It’s been 3+ months since you’ve had COVID
If you have a big event in 2+ weeks, it’s a good time to go to https://t.co/b0lnuggpPW.
Though it did not receive as much attention, that tweet was again indeed ratioed.
As Sister Toldjah highlighted in her post, the CDC website was also confusing:
Others noted that getting the vaccine did not protect you from catching it again (though the CDC says it can potentially keep you from having to deal with a severe case), which was not included in Harris’ message, while many who responded to Becerra wondered exactly when the did the every two months thing start.
Instead of listening to either one of them, I went directly to the CDC’s website, where there was more confusing information, and where I was directed to different links much in the way you get transferred from person to person during a phone call to your insurance company or cell phone provider.
One page tells you how to “stay up to date” with the vaccines and boosters, but directs you to another page if you are “moderately or severely immunocompromised.” On that page, it tells you that such people should get “get an extra primary series dose if receiving the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech series” and below that gives drop-down dosage recommendations for kids and adults, and none of them go beyond four doses including the initial two that were heavily promoted in 2021.
As confusing as it all is, the best thing to do is one simple thing: Instead of listening to politicians and other public health officials who give out mixed messages on what they believe you should do – especially those who undermined the vaccine when it was politically convenient and then abruptly changed their tunes after the 2020 election, if you have questions or concerns about the vaccine, consult with your doctor.
It’s just as simple as that.
When it comes to Jean-Pierre's tweet from Black Friday, it's worth mentioning that she equated getting an updated COVID shot with the flu shot, which is done once a year. Dr. Anthony Fauci also made the same point during one of his many Sunday show appearances.
As was highlighted last week, the narrative has also not been entirely too helpful to the White House when it comes to incessantly promoting these updated boosters:
Despite such claims and even demonization about the unvaccinated from this administration, that narrative isn't quite accurate. As Katie highlighted on Wednesday, data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed that a majority of people who died in August from COVID were fully vaccinated.
The Washington Post's McKenzie Beard also picked up on such data, with her headline currently declaring "Covid is no longer mainly a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Here’s why." As archived versions of the webpage show, the original title was "Vaccinated people now make up a majority of covid deaths."
Other headlines aren't very helpful to the White House's narrative. They include:
- "Will Covid Boosters Prevent Another Wave? Scientists Aren’t So Sure," from Apoorva Mandavilli at The New York Times on November 18.
- "New boosters add limited protection against Covid-19 illness, first real-world study shows," from Brenda Goodman at CNN on November 22.
- "Omicron boosters probably aren’t very effective against mild Covid illness, but will likely prevent hospitalizations, experts say," from Spencer Kimball at CNBC on November 25.
Adding more insult to injury when it comes to how this administration has been all about tweeting about vaccines and boosters when they can't even get their story straight is that it appears to be such a priority for them, and yet they can't even get it right. This is as other pressing matters, especially the protests in China over the draconian "zero COVID" policies fall to the wayside.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member