Sarah Palin.Photo: Pete Marovich/Getty Images
In her first interview since again contracting COVID-19,Sarah Palintold Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday that she felt “totally fine” and that the experience had not altered her views on the risks of the deadly pandemic.
“There are more viruses on Earth than there are stars in the sky,” Palin, 57, insisted. This virus, she argued, was being used to “control the people”
“She is, of course, unvaccinated,” Judge Jed Rakoff told the court Monday morning,CNNandReutersreported.
That markedthe second COVID diagnosisfor Palin, who in March revealed she had"bizarre" symptomsafter previously contracting the virus, including a loss of taste and smell.
While she initially told PEOPLE that getting sick underlined for her the importance of health precautions like wearing masks, she has become increasingly outspoken about restrictions imposed to slow COVID infections. (The New York Timesreports thatshe recently ate indoors at a restaurant in the city despite a lack of proof of vaccination, violating local rules.)
She recently said she also has no plans to get vaccinated.
“It’ll be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot,” Palin said, while addressing a conservative crowd at AmericaFest 2021 in December. “I will not do that. I won’t do it, and they better not touch my kids either.”
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Palin said she felt “absolutely normal.” Still, she argued the virus has become “politicized and weaponized,” calling vaccine mandates “COVID overreach, over-regulation, overreaction.” (There is no federal mandate to be vaccinated, though federal workers and some private employees are required to be vaccinated or regularly tested for the virus.)
“I don’t want to live in your paranoid world anymore. Your masked, paranoid world,” he told his audience during Friday’s episode ofReal Time with Bill Maher. “You know you go out, it’s silly now. You know, you have to have your mask, you have to have a card, you have to have a booster.”
Speaking to Watters, Palin continued to claim that COVID mandates will be expanded as part of what she believes is a pattern of the government grabbing power.
As Palin noted in her Fox News interview, her most recent diagnosis led to a brief delay in her trial against theTimesfor defamation, which was set to begin Monday.
Jury selection was moved to Feb. 3.
As information about thecoronavirus pandemicrapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from theCDC,WHOandlocal public health departments.PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMeto raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, clickhere.
source: people.com
