Virginia Lt. Gov.-Elect Sears Distorts Facts on COVID-19 Vaccines

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Virginia Lt. Gov.-Elect Winsome Sears spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines that we have previously debunked.

CNN Host Dana Bash, Nov. 21: So, why is it OK to mandate childhood vaccines in Virginia for so many diseases, but not COVID?

Sears: Well, let’s ask ourselves. And I’m not saying yea or nay. Let’s ask ourselves, if the purpose of the COVID vaccine is to prevent us from getting COVID, then why is it that those who have had COVID must get the vaccine? The one doesn’t follow the other.

Sears, a Republican who won the Nov. 3 election and will become the state’s first female lieutenant governor, argues that vaccine mandates shouldn’t apply to those who have already been infected  COVID-19. But, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, people who’ve already had COVID-19 should be vaccinated for two reasons:

• “Research has not yet shown how long you are protected from getting COVID-19 again after you recover from