Sarah Palin was for vaccines before she was against them. Last March, after testing positive, the failed vice presidential candidate pleaded (rightly!) with her base to get vaccinated and even mask up, reminding them that “anyone can catch this.” By December of last year, she had flip-flopped, going so far as to says she’d get vaxxed “over her dead body.” Now, a month later, she’s caught COVID again. The twist this time is that she may have infected a lot of innocent people.
The New York Times reports that Palin dined indoors on Saturday night at Elio’s, a celebrity-frequented Italian restaurant in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Like all New York City restaurants, Elio’s checks proof of vaccination from diners. A manager there said they “made a mistake.” Though they check vaccination cards for all new customers, they don’t do so for regulars. And when Palin strolled into Elio’s on Saturday, she did so with a “longtime guest.”
“She probably just walked in and strolled over” to the table, said the manager. “We are trying to get to the bottom of this.”
So now, Elio staff and its diners that night are being notified of being exposed to someone with COVID, thanks to an unvaccinated former governor who days later took three tests, all of which came back positive.
Palin’s positive COVID test wound up delaying a defamation trial involving The New York Times over a 2017 column, which is seen as a major test of First Amendment/freedom-of-the-press protections. This is the third time the trial has been delayed.
(Via NYT)