After President Joe Biden gladly advertised On Wednesday that he tested negative for COVID-19 and is no longer isolating, Fox News host Sean Hannity called it “good news,” only to later say that the strain of the virus Biden battled was “much, much weaker” than then-President Donald Trump had in the fall of 2020.
Biden tested positive last Thursday, and over the weekend his doctor said he probably contracted the BA.5 subvariant which currently constitutes the vast majority of cases nationally. The 79-year-old president, who has received four vaccinations, was treated with an antiviral made by Pfizer. called Paxlovid.
“Unfortunately, this COVID is still with us, as it has been for two and a half years. But our fight against COVID is making a big difference. What is different now is our ability to protect ourselves from serious illness due to COVID,” Biden told White House staff in the Rose Garden.
“When my predecessor contracted COVID, had to take a helicopter to Walter Reed Medical Center. He was seriously ill. He fortunately recovered. When I contracted COVID, I worked from the top floor of the White House…for a period of five days. The difference is the vaccines, of course.”
Hannity then chimed in to contrast the level of severity between Biden’s and Trump’s respective illnesses.
“What Joe didn’t mention is that the current variant, which is BA.5 (the dominant variant of omicron), is much, much weaker than the original strain that infected then-President Trump,” said the frequent Trump supporter who taking a special interest in denigrating Biden’s health. (BA.5, with its unique mutations that make it less detectable by antibodies, it is still quite dangerous).
Hannity then criticized Biden for not giving his predecessor credit for the vaccines, “which were made possible by President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed,” as he put it.
“The uniter-in-chief that he is just doesn’t seem to have it in him,” the Fox host complained.
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