by Debra Heine
The liberal justices on the Supreme Court demonstrated a stunningly weak grasp of basic facts concerning the COVID-19 pandemic Friday, as they defended the Biden regime’s policies during oral arguments over vaccine mandates in the workplace.
The court heard separate oral arguments over federal vaccine mandates for employers with more than 100 employees, and for health care workers at facilities receiving Medicaid and Medicare funding.
Justice Stephen Breyer at one point seemed to suggest outrageously that the OSHA mandate would prevent 100 percent of daily US COVID cases. It is common knowledge now that the vaccinated people can still spread the disease.
Breyer falsely claimed that 750 million people—the population of the United States is 332 million—tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Justice Elena Kagan repeatedly posed questions on the false premise that vaccinated people don’t spread Covid.
“We know the best way to prevent spread is for people to get vaccinated,” said Kagan. “This is the policy that is most geared to stopping all this.”
The data suggests the opposite is true. Cities with the strictest vaccine mandates are seeing the hugest spikes in disease.
Arguing on behalf of GOP-led states opposing mandate, Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers pointed out that Omicron is different than Delta in that it is less severe, and more likely to infect vaccinated individuals.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor rebutted this characterization of the facts by overexaggerating the risk of the Omicron to children, and the unvaccinated.
Sotomayor argued that increased hospitalizations “show that Omicron is just as deadly [as Delta] for the unvaccinated.”
However, the data overwhelmingly shows that Omicron, while more transmissible, is less deadly for everyone. Even the usually pessimistic NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci conceded Wednesday that “multiple sources of now-preliminary data indicate a decrease severity with Omicron.”
The Obama-appointed justice then told this whopper: “We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators,” she falsely claimed.
In reality, young people are still at a low risk of having a severe outcome from the coronavirus.
While the virus has surged nationwide, the seven-day average of pediatric hospitalizations was only around 3,700 this week, according to the Washington Post.
“As of Tuesday, the average number of children and teens admitted to the hospital per day with COVID-19 was 766,” The Associated Press reported on Friday. In the AP article, Fauci noted “many children hospitalized with COVID-19 have other health conditions that make them more susceptible to complications from the virus. That includes obesity, diabetes and lung disease.”
Sotomayor’s comments were widely ridiculed on Twitter.
“This is just absolutely astonishing,” wrote Unleash Prosperity president Phil Kerpen. “‘100,000 children in serious condition,’ per Sotomayor. Where do these people obtain their misinformation? The current national pediatric COVID census per HHS is 3,342. Many/most incidental.”
“Fact-checkers. Hello?” Fox News contributor Joe Concha asked in response to Sotomayor.
“Inexcusable for a SCOTUS justice to peddle this fear mongering false info,” the Hudson Institute’s Rebeccah Heinrichs wrote.
“It’s actually terrifying that a Supreme Court justice can be so misinformed. The emperor has no clothes,” Ron DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw chimed in.
“Justice Sotomayor’s comment on 100,000 children in serious condition with covid is such a flagrantly untrue statement she should have to correct it after the argument. It’s embarrassing for the Supreme Court to allow that factual inaccuracy to occur in an oral argument,” OutKick’s Clay Travis tweeted.
“It’s hard to convey the disrespect showed by Justices Sotomayor and Breyer today,” tweeted legal expert Techno Fog. “100 million Americans are affected by the Biden COVID mandates. And these Justices showed up unprepared, inventing COVID numbers to support whatever legal conclusion they’ve already reached.”
Attorney Michael P. Senger tweeted out “a partial list” of the COVID misinformation that was on display in the US Supreme Court today:
A partial list of COVID misinformation repeated by the US Supreme Court so far today:
•100,000 children in critical care and on ventilators (Sotomayor)
•Vaccine mandate would prevent 100% of US cases (Breyer)
•COVID deaths are at an all-time high (Sotomayor) 1/— Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) January 7, 2022
•It’s “beyond settled” that vaccines and masks are best way to stop the spread (Kagan)
•COVID vaccines stop transmission (Kagan)
•Federal government can mandate vaccines using its police power (Sotomayor)
•Hospitals are nearing capacity (Sotomayor) 2/— Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) January 7, 2022
Two officials presenting arguments on Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden’s administration have tested positive for COVID-19 and will make their cases remotely, their offices said.
Two of the lawyers presenting arguments against the mandates Friday—Benjamin Flowers and Louisiana Solicitor General Liz Murrill—tested positive for COVID-19, according to their offices, and made their cases remotely.
Flowers is triple vaxxed, but he still got COVID. There is no word on Murrill’s vaccination status.
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Stephen Breyer” by Steve Petteway. Photo “Elena Kagan” by Steve Petteway. CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo “Sonia Sotomayor” by Steve Petteway. Background Photo “COVID-19 Vaccine” by torstensimon.
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Not surprised!