CNN doctor rips Sen. Ron Johnson over vaccine comments: ‘He’s so misguided’
CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner appeared on Erin Burnett Out Front Tuesday, where fill-in host Poppy Harlow spoke with him about all-things COVID-19 related. And she got his reaction to comments that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) made to Fox News on Monday evening, regarding the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“We all hoped and prayed the vaccines would be 100% effective, 100% safe. But they’re not,” Johnson said on Monday. “We now know that fully vaccinated individuals can catch Covid, they can transmit Covid. So what’s the point?”
Harlow played a clip of Johnson’s interview and then asked Dr. Reiner, who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush, what he thought of those comments.
“I’d say that he’s so misguided that it makes me wonder whether this is all just an act. And if it is an act, what does that say about what he thinks his constituents want to hear?” Reiner said, later adding. “And if this is not an act, then he is just the most ignorant man in the United States Senate. And that says a lot.”
Video Transcript
- The only people dying essentially now from this virus are the unvaccinated. And the vast majority of people being hospitalized in this country are the unvaccinated.
KYLIE MAR: On CNN's Erin Burnett front Tuesday, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner reacted to comments that Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson made to Fox News on Monday when he said this about the COVID-19 vaccine.
- We all hoped and prayed the vaccines would be 100% effective, 100% safe. But they're not we now know that fully vaccinated individuals can catch COVID. They can transmit COVID. So what's the point?
KYLIE MAR: So fill in host, Poppy Harlow asked Dr. Reiner who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush what he thought of those comments.
- I say that he's so misguided that it makes me wonder whether this is all just an act. And if it is an act, what does that say about what he thinks his constituents want to hear? If this is not an act, then he is just the most ignorant man in the United States Senate. And that says a lot.
KYLIE MAR: Senator Johnson has been making headlines throughout the course of the pandemic with health experts calling him one of the main perpetrators of misinformation, which as Dr. Reiner said has consequences.
- And his propagation of this nonsense that somehow vaccines don't work. And are unsafe is the reason why so many of his constituents are becoming hospitalized and are dying.
