CNN medical expert slams Sarah Palin for dining in a restaurant only a few days after COVID-19 diagnosis

On Monday, January 24, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff announced that he had delayed Sarah Palin’s defamation trial against the New York Times because she had tested positive for COVID-19. But according to CNN, video has surfaced that shows the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee dining publicly in a Manhattan restaurant only two days later on January 26. And CNN’s Dr. Leana Wen is calling Palin out for recklessly putting others at risk.

Wen was asked if it was “safe” for someone diagnosed with COVID-19 to “go to a restaurant if you dine outside.” And Wen emphatically replied, without hesitation, “No, it is not. What the CDC guidelines very clearly state is that for the first five days after you are first diagnosed with COVID, you should be isolating. You should not be in public.”

Wen continued, “Five days after that, you’re able to go out in public, but only if you’re wearing a well-fitting mask the entire time. You should certainly not be dining with others. Actually, the CDC explicitly says you should not be dining with others in that second five-day period. Outdoors is certainly better than indoors; however, you’re still sitting next to people. You’re sitting across from people.”

Palin, an outspoken anti-vaxxer who has said she will get a COVID-19 vaccine “over my dead body,” has been infected with COVID-19 twice — first in 2021, and again in January 2022.

Wen, sounding frustrated, said, “I just don’t think it’s a responsible thing to be with others when you know you are actively infectious for COVID-19. So please, if you are diagnosed with COVID, please say home. Please follow isolation guidelines. Please don’t spread the infection further.”