Sarah Palin’s Reason for Not Getting Vaccinated? “I Believe in Science!”

Speaking on FOX News’ Gutfeld! Thursday night, former Alaska governor and failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin admitted she was unvaccinated, justifying that irresponsible decision by saying, “I believe in science.”

… I believe in science and I have not taken the shot… because I do believe in science and the Fauci-ism of the day, back then, was if you had COVID — I’ve had COVID — well then Mother Nature was creating an immunity…

When you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how science works, combined with a misinterpretation of what vaccine studies actually conclude, it’s easy to think you’re on the side of science. Palin, unfortunately, is wrong.

The “Faucian” idea that getting COVID gives you a natural immunity was floating around in vaccine discourse before we had enough vaccines for everyone. While it’s true that being infected will boost your immunity more than having been neither infected nor vaccinated, we now know that previously infected people can get an even greater immunity boost by getting the vaccine. That’s why Fauci and the great majority of doctors have urged people to get vaccinated even if you’ve had the virus.

Later in that segment (though not in the clip above), Palin and fellow guest Dr. Drew Pinksy talk about how people with “natural” immunity are 27 times more immune than those without the shot — Palin initially said 27% more immune, though Pinsky corrected her — but even that’s not entirely accurate.

Pinsky was referencing the findings of a recent study showing the power of “natural infection immunity.” But in a concurrent article about the findings published in Science, the headline even says “but vaccination remains vital.” (The headline!)

In short, while the researchers found that surviving COVID granted people a powerful immunity against the virus as well as the delta variant, not everyone survives that first encounter with the virus and, as physician-scientist Eric Topol noted, “when you bolster that with one dose of vaccine, you take it to levels you can’t possibly match with any vaccine in the world right now.”

The lesson is obvious: Get the vaccine. Even if you’ve previously had COVID, you’re safer with the shot.

Palin went on to say, “If [Fauci’s] going to clobber me for [questioning the vaccine], then I take that back. That wasn’t very nice.” Forgive us if we are not in the mood to be “nice” to people who choose not to vaccinate when they are fully able to. There’s nothing “nice” about perpetuating a deadly disease when it takes only moments to do your part to end it and save countless lives. Someone who has long considered herself “pro-life” should care about that.