Sarah Palin Discusses Her Second COVID Diagnosis

Pete Marovich/Getty Images Sarah Palin

In her first interview since again contracting COVID-19, Sarah Palin told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday that she felt "totally fine" and that the experience had not altered her views on the risks of the deadly pandemic.

"There are more viruses on Earth than there are stars in the sky," Palin, 57, insisted. This virus, she argued, was being used to "control the people"

The former Alaska governor-turned-TV personality made headlines on Monday when her defamation case against The New York Times was pushed back as a federal judge in New York announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19.

"She is, of course, unvaccinated," Judge Jed Rakoff told the court Monday morning, CNN and Reuters reported.

RELATED: Sarah Palin Tests Positive for COVID — Again — as NYT Defamation Trial Was Set to Begin

That marked the second COVID diagnosis for Palin, who in March revealed she had "bizarre" symptoms after previously contracting the virus, including a loss of taste and smell.

While she initially told PEOPLE that getting sick underlined for her the importance of health precautions like wearing masks, she has become increasingly outspoken about restrictions imposed to slow COVID infections. (The New York Times reports that she recently ate indoors at a restaurant in the city despite a lack of proof of vaccination, violating local rules.)

She recently said she also has no plans to get vaccinated.

"It'll be over my dead body that I'll have to get a shot," Palin said, while addressing a conservative crowd at AmericaFest 2021 in December. "I will not do that. I won't do it, and they better not touch my kids either."

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Palin said she felt "absolutely normal." Still, she argued the virus has become "politicized and weaponized," calling vaccine mandates "COVID overreach, over-regulation, overreaction." (There is no federal mandate to be vaccinated, though federal workers and some private employees are required to be vaccinated or regularly tested for the virus.)

Palin also said she agreed with recent controversial comments made by Bill Maher regarding COVID safety precautions.

"I don't want to live in your paranoid world anymore. Your masked, paranoid world," he told his audience during Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. "You know you go out, it's silly now. You know, you have to have your mask, you have to have a card, you have to have a booster."

"I say, 'Welcome to the team too,' " Palin said Monday of Maher's comments. "I guess we will take him, because he does have a voice."

RELATED: Whoopi Goldberg Rips Bill Maher's 'Flippant' COVID-19 Remarks: 'How Dare You?'

Palin herself doesn't appeared to be swayed by the science, as recent data shows that those who are fully vaccinated are far less likely to be hospitalized with the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (and studies by the scientific community around the world).

Speaking to Watters, Palin continued to claim that COVID mandates will be expanded as part of what she believes is a pattern of the government grabbing power.

As Palin noted in her Fox News interview, her most recent diagnosis led to a brief delay in her trial against the Times for defamation, which was set to begin Monday.

Jury selection was moved to Feb. 3.

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