HHS Secretary Becerra Says Comments About "Government's Business" and Vaccination Status Were Taken Out of Context
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sparked controversy on Thursday after an interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar. Keilar asked, “I wonder if you can answer that criticism: ‘It’s none of the government’s business knowing who has or hasn’t been vaccinated.’ What do you say?” Becerra responded, “It is absolutely the government’s business, it is taxpayers’ business, if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting covid and helping reopen the economy.” Becerra later tweeted that his comments were “taken wildly out of context” and that the “government has no database tracking who is vaccinated.”
Coverage was more prominent in right-rated outlets, with Fox News featuring the story at the top of its homepage. Coverage in several outlets across the spectrum took Becerra’s comments to mean that it was the government’s business to know who had been vaccinated. Coverage in some left-rated outlets highlighted Becerra’s claim that his remarks were taken out of context.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Center
HHS head: 'Absolutely the government's business' to know people's vaccine statusHealth and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra declared Thursday that "it is absolutely the government's business" to know people's vaccination status, arguing the federal government has a vested interest in keeping Americans safe.
“The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to try and keep Americans alive during this pandemic," Becerra said on CNN's "New Day." "So it is absolutely the government's business, it is taxpayers' business, if we have to continue to spend money to try and keep people from contracting COVID."
From the Left
HHS chief says his vaccine comments are being taken ‘wildly out of context’Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Thursday sought to clarify his argument that “it is absolutely the government’s business” to know which Americans have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, after facing backlash from Republicans in Congress.
In a tweet, the federal government’s top health official said his comments from earlier in the day had been “taken wildly out of context.”
From the Right
HHS Secretary Becerra: 'Absolutely the government's business' to know which Americans haven't been vaccinatedHealth and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday it was "absolutely the government's business" to know which Americans haven't been vaccinated yet against the coronavirus.
Responding to GOP criticisms of the Biden administration's planned "door-to-door" campaign to encourage unvaccinated Americans to inoculate themselves, Becerra told CNN the government has had to "spend trillions of dollars to try to keep Americans alive during this pandemic."
"So it is absolutely the government's business, it is taxpayers' business, if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen...
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