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DeSantis' Press Secretary Gets Blunt Science Lesson After Mocking Jen Psaki For Getting COVID

DeSantis' Press Secretary Gets Blunt Science Lesson After Mocking Jen Psaki For Getting COVID
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Following White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's positive COVID-19 test over the weekend, several Republicans have seized on her diagnosis as proof of Democratic President Joe Biden's failures on tackling the pandemic and the inefficacy of the vaccines.

Among them was Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' Press Secretary Christina Pushaw—who in August had her Twitter account suspended for "abusive behavior."

In a snide tweet about Psaki's diagnosis, Pushaw accused Psaki of lacking "logic" for still supporting vaccine mandates despite the fact that she contracted a breakthrough infection--a charge that shows Pushaw's own fundamental misunderstanding of the rudiments of vaccines.

So the internet immediately set her straight with a basic science lesson.


Pushaw's tweet read:
"Jen Psaki, despite being fully vaccinated, just tested positive. She supports vaccine mandates to stop the spread of the virus. Where is the logic? 🤷🏼♀️"
"PS: Get well soon, @PressSec!"
The mocking and insincere "get well soon" about a disease that has killed nearly 750,000 Americans to date is a charming touch, isn't?

Psaki announced her diagnosis in a statement released Monday.


In it, Psaki revealed that she had been quarantining since early last week following a positive diagnosis of someone in her household, and credited the vaccine with enabling her to continue her work despite her own diagnosis.

"Thanks to the vaccine, I have only experienced mild symptoms which has enabled me to continue working from home."

That is, indeed, part of the purpose of vaccines--to enable the immune system to fight the pathogen. Most of the time, that means the vaccinated person never becomes sick at all. But much like the yearly flu vaccine, breakthrough infections can happen, and when they do, their severity is usually drastically mitigated.

This is basic vaccine science, and a point the medical and scientific communities have been hammering home since the beginning of the vaccine rollout.

But since Pushaw apparently missed all that, Twitter decided to fill her in on where "the logic" is.















This of course isn't the first time Pushaw has waded into the vaccine debate with an absurd take: In September, she claimed that the reason Republicans won't get vaccinated is simply because they "believe that masks work" despite the fact that her boss was in the middle of trying to make mask mandates illegal in the state of Florida.