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Republican representative slams vaccines on Fox News then praises them on CNN an hour later

nancy mace, anti-vaxxers, fox news vaccines
via @Acyn/Twitter

Representative Nancy Mace on Fox News and CNN

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is the subject of an embarrassing viral video where she downplays the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine on Fox News and then, an hour later, touts their importance on CNN.

On Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Mace made some misleading and dangerous statements about why “natural immunity” is better than immunity provided by vaccines.

“One thing the CDC and no policy maker at the federal level has done so far is take into account what natural immunity has done,” Mace said. “That may be what we’re seeing in Florida today. In some studies that I have read, natural immunity gives you 27 times more protection against future COVID infection than vaccination. We need to take all of the science into account and not selectively choosing what science to follow when we are making policy decisions.”

This may sound scientific, but Mace leaves out the part where to get “natural immunity,” you have to survive the virus first. The goal, for most people during a pandemic, is not to get sick in the first place.

Alessandro Sette of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology says that nobody should be asking themselves, “should I get COVID or be vaccinated?”

“COVID is associated with high disease burden, risk of death and long-lasting health issues (long COVID), in contrast with the excellent safety profile of vaccination,” he tweeted. “The question is ‘should I get vaccinated even if I previously had covid?’ People that were infected and then vaccinated develop a powerful immune response, called ‘hybrid immunity’, which exceeds what is seen with either natural infection or vaccination.”

It’s believed that in the Fox interview, Mace is referencing an Israeli study that found that natural immunity provides 27 times more protection from the delta variant than a vaccine. However, according to FactCheck.org, that study has not been peer reviewed or “accepted or endorsed in any way by the scientific or medical community.”

The study’s authors also say that the natural immunity that comes from being infected by the virus may wane over a short period of time.

An hour after her Fox interview, Mace was singing about the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines on CNN.

“I’ve been a proponent of vaccinations and wearing masks when you need to,” she said. “When we had the delta variant raging in South Carolina, I wrote an op-ed to my community, and I worked with our state Department of Health.”

So what is it, Representative Mace? Should we risk death by achieving “natural immunity” or through a safe and effective vaccine?

Obviously, the answer is, don’t risk death or the symptoms of long COVID and get the vaccine. If you’ve already been sick, get the vaccine anyway and enjoy even stronger immunity.

However, Representative Mace thinks that the correct answer is whatever her conservative constituents who watch Fox News or her small, but important group of liberals and moderates supporters, who watch CNN, think.

Why is she flip-flopping on a life-or-death issue? It could be because Mace is at real risk of losing her seat in 2022. In 2020, she beat Democrat Joe Cunningham by less than 6,000 votes. Further, she’s already provoked the ire of Republican kingmaker Donald Trump who put her on a list of Republicans he wants to be booted from office.

It’s understandable that Mace has to try to appeal to as many people as possible to keep her political career alive. But the fact that she’s fine with risking the lives of countless Americans to do so, makes her unfit for office.

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