Malfunction at the podium? Psaki announces vaccines ‘can still kill you’ in eyebrow-raising slip-up

A bizarre video of the White House Press Secretary advising on “communicating clearly” about vaccines, after she’d told Americans they “can still kill you,” has half the internet shocked, while the other half hasn’t quite noticed.

The clip shows Jen Psaki apparently responding to a question about vaccines during a Wednesday press briefing, stressing the importance of staying on message and praising actress and singer Olivia Rodrigo, who came to the White House to raise awareness on the subject. 

But Psaki’s message soon takes an odd turn, as she suddenly declares that the vaccines the Biden administration is desperate to convince more Americans to take “can still kill you” – even if you’re “under 27.” She made the comment after noting there are areas in the country with lower vaccination rates among people under that age – seemingly meaning to say Covid-19 can still kill even young people.

“We are quite focused on communicating directly with those people, hence our special guest today, about why it’s important to get vaccinated, why these vaccines are safe, why they can still kill you even if you are under the age of 27,” Psaki declares, seemingly unaware there is anything odd about her words before concluding:

We need to be clear and direct about our messaging.

Posted to conservative outlet TownHall’s Twitter on Wednesday, the clip quickly attracted a lot of attention from the political Right, along with independents, progressives, and other areas of the political spectrum known for their distaste for the Democratic political establishment.

The other ‘side’ – Biden supporters, Psaki fans, and the ‘blue wave’ of anti-Trump figures – mostly ignored the clip, aside from a few complaints from liberals who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo.

The absence of fact-checkers declaring all mockery of Psaki to be fake news may have been uncanny, but it didn’t stop other social media users from unloading on her.

“Makes me want to run right out and remain unvaccinated,” one person wrote. 

“Would this qualify as bad messaging?” another asked.

The gaffe happened after a reporter questioned the reason why “Missouri has more than 30 counties where there’s less than 25% of the population vaccinated,” while “Kansas, right next door” has just two counties with such low rates, inquiring whether Psaki thought the blame could be placed on local, state, or other leadership.

Psaki has had a tough few days, tasked with defending the White House’s door-to-door vaccination outreach program as information-based, after some Americans were disturbed to see footage of a group of North Carolina vaccinators administering the jab to one man right on his porch.

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