Biden ‘listens to the science’ when saying the vaccinated can’t spread Covid

The exchange between Peter Doocy of Fox News and White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre played out like this on Thursday.

Peter Doocy asked: "Why is President Biden telling people still that the vaccinated cannot spread COVID?"

"Can you say more?" replied the Deputy Press Secretary.

"Yeah in a local interview on Tuesday he said 'how about making sure you're vaccinated so you do not spread the disease to anybody else.' The CDC says people get… vaccine breakthrough infections can be contagious," answered Doocy.

"Well I’ll say this: I didn’t hear this interview, so I’d have to see it in its full context. But what I know and what the President believes is that we have to listen to the science, we have to listen to our public health officials, and that’s what the President believes."

Here’s the clip in question.

With the onset of the Omicron variant, discussions surrounding the efficiency of the standard COVID vaccines have reignited. At another point in the press conference the fact that a CDC panel now recommends Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines over the Johnson & Johnson shot was discussed, because of the rare side effect of blood clots.

While President Biden has avoided answering directly about this year’s tally of COVID deaths, the administration has canceled some of their holiday plans in response to the Omicron variant.