White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeatedly declined Monday to address Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s false claims about the Omicron variant of COVID-19 before calling for Chicago teachers to return to work after they caused classes to be canceled for a fourth day over record-high coronavirus cases.
Sotomayor claimed Friday during oral arguments over President Biden’s private sector vaccine mandate that the Omicron variant is so severe that “we have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, many on ventilators.”
Official data indicate there are just 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 correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki Monday.
“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. So I will leave it to them to decide, but that’s what’s being argued now.”
Sotomayor mentioned the untrue child hospitalization data as justices weighed...
By JAMELLE BOUIE Donald Trump knew as well as anyone that he had lost the 2020 presidential election fair and square. He knew there was no conspiracy to commit voter fraud — no mysterious mail bal...