Does a Photo Show Sen. Rand Paul Getting a COVID Vaccination?
No. The photo is from 2015.
Sen. Rand Paul went viral online with a video in which he encouraged the American people to resist the “mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of petty tyrants and bureaucrats,” referring to mask mandates and vaccine requirements instituted during the coronavirus pandemic. After the release of the video, some online began to call out Paul for perceived hypocrisy over a picture of Paul receiving a shot purported to be the coronavirus vaccine:
The picture doesn’t show Paul getting vaccinated against coronavirus; it’s from a New York Times article published in 2015 and shows Paul getting a Hepatitis A booster shot. Paul has said he won’t get a coronavirus vaccine because he has already had the virus. Paul’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.
On the one hand, I think Rand Paul is an idiot, but on the other, anyone who saw this picture and took it as proof that Paul got the Covid vaccine is also an idiot. The photo shows Paul getting a shot in his shoulder, but it's undated (I assume Aug 9 2021 is the date of the tweet, not the photo) and the shot could be anything.
Good Lord.
1. What is wrong with Rand Paul, who is telling people to resist vaccine mandates that are not occurring (but probably should be, given how many people are dying because of misinformation)? It reminds me of Screwtape talking about how demons tempt people to scramble to the side of the boat that is already sinking fastest.
2. What is wrong with people, that (even if you agree with Paul about the place of government) somehow _freely_ choosing to get a vaccine makes him a hypocrite here? How does getting a vaccine, developed by the free market, mean you are somehow a bureaucratic tool? This is not a photo of Rand Paul signing a bill to mandate vaccinations, but of him choosing to get one! Come on!
3. What is wrong with Republicans that they are doing dumb things and saying dumb things they don’t believe because they don’t want to out themselves as smart to the “base” (which is constantly becoming larger and dumber because their leaders are normalizing this sort of nincompoopery)? And then it’s a big strike against them when people find out they’re not really as dumb as they claimed to be? And then it turns out they actually are that dumb, and that the smart thing they were accused of doing was a hoax?
I mean…