During Monday’s White House press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeatedly refused to comment on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s false claims about the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Sotomayor had claimed on Friday during arguments over President Biden’s vaccine mandate for large businesses that due to the Omicron variant “we have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, many on ventilators.”
However, there are only about 5,000 children in hospitals who have COVID-19.
“What do you guys think about COVID misinformation coming from the Supreme Court and Sonia Sotomayor’s false claim that over 100,000 children are in serious condition, many on ventilators?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Psaki.
“Well, I’m not going to speak to Supreme Court arguments or statements made in those arguments,” Psaki said.
“But I will tell you that what is at stake here is our effort to protect health workers and most importantly, protect patients, with the CMS rule [that requires most healthcare workers to be vaccinated] and also to make workplaces safer with the OSHA rule [the private sector mandate], which we have confidence in our legal argument for,” she added. “So I will leave it to them to decide, but that’s what’s being argued now.”
Later in the briefing, RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann pointed out that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy had declared COVID-19 misinformation a “public health crisis” in July, then asked Psaki about Sotomayor’s false claims again.
“Not long ago in this room, the surgeon general told us that COVID misinformation was a public health threat,” Wegmann said. “I’m wondering if the White House is at all concerned given Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s remarks about the Omicron variant that maybe the danger is being overhyped and your message is not getting out?”
“I think I just addressed this,” Psaki said. “Didn’t I answer his question?”
Wegmann pressed, “Are you worried that there’s misinformation that is being spread so much so that even a sitting Supreme Court justice has an inaccurate picture of things?”
“Again, I’m just not going to weigh in on a specific legal argument made in the court,” Psaki responded.
