Photo: Candace Owens speaks before President Donald Trump arrives at the Young Black Leadership Summit at the White House, Oct. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Conservative talk show host Candace Owens can be added to the list of high-profile anti-vaxxers after the political commentator said recently that she would “rather die of covid than get the vaccine.”
There have been questions about how sincere Owens is in her anti-vaccine stance after a photo surfaced months ago of her at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Madison Square Garden. Now people are questioning if all the anti-vaxx talk is hot air. New York City mandated that all UFC attendees age 12 and up must show proof of vaccination. So did Owens fraudulently proof of vaccination to enter the famed New York City venue?
Still, she claimed on social media that she was not vaccinated. She stated, “I am not getting this vaccine. Ever! Never going to get it. I don’t care if I’m on my deathbed and they say it can save you, I’m not going to get it. I’m principally now opposed to it, and I do not understand why anyone who is healthy, able-bodied and young would ever get this vaccine if you’re not at risk of Covid.”
Referring to the controversy about her attendance at Madison Square Garden, she urged her followers to ignore Madison Square Garden’s website, which says on its FAQ page that guests must be vaccinated.
Owens told her audience to go to the New York City law website, which she insists provides exclusions for those who remain unvaccinated, Mediate reported.
Owens may be wrong about this. New York City law states that for indoor public activity venues including sports arenas, “People 12 and older participating in the below public indoor activities are now required to show proof they have received two vaccine doses, except for those who have received the one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”
Twitter responded to Owens saying she’d rather die of covid than get vaccinated.
“I have no problem with this,” tweeted Cheri Jacobus, a Republican-turned-independent political pundit.
Others doubted she was unvaccinated.
“Yeah right. My bet is she’s both vaxxed and boosted,” tweeted Jim Cassidy (@JimCassidy48)
Some Twitter respondents reflected on the strangeness of using anti-vaxx as a political strategy.
“I guess if the conservative revolution ends in self-selected death, it was simply the worst execution of war theory ever. ‘Wait! I have an idea. Let’s walk right through enemy lines with no weapons or plan and yell loudly about our arrival,'” tweeted andrew eklund (@aeklund)
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?
Owens recently sat down with former President Donald Trump, whom she has staunchly supported. In a Dec. 14, 2021, Daily Wire interview, Trump defended vaccines. On social media, Owens suggested Trump is too “old” to look up alternative vaccine information online.
Former President Trump, who once dubbed covid-19 vaccines as “one of the greatest achievements of mankind,” told Owens he had received the vaccine as well as the booster.
Owens interrupted Trump’s praise of the vaccine and said, “Yet more people have died under covid this year (2021), by the way, under Joe Biden, then under you and more people took the vaccine this year,” Forbes reported.
Trump answered, “Oh no, the vaccines work, but some people aren’t the ones. The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected.”
Trump added, “Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”
Trump for the most part was correct, wrote Bruce Lee, a professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health, for Forbes.
“The vaccine doesn’t offer 100 percent protection though. It’s not like a gigantic full-body concrete condom,” Lee wrote. “You can still get very sick with covid-19 if you are vaccinated, albeit your chances are much, much lower. That’s why combining other covid-19 precautions such as face mask wearing and social distancing are so important as long as the SARS-CoV-2 is still spreading in a relatively uncontrolled manner.”
Photo: Candace Owens speaks before President Donald Trump arrives at the Young Black Leadership Summit at the White House, Oct. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
