Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers criticized President Joe Biden over his remarks about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Rodgers told ESPN during an interview over the weekend, “When the president of the United States says, ‘This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’ it’s because him and his constituents, which, I don’t know how there are any if you watch any of his attempts at public speaking, but I guess he got 81 million votes.”
He added, “But when you say stuff like that, and then you have the CDC, which, how do you even trust them, but then they come out and talk about 75% of the COVID deaths have at least four comorbidities. And you still have this fake White House set saying that this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated, that’s not helping the conversation.”
In November, Rodgers admitted he “misled” people about his vaccine status, as the Los Angeles Times reported.
The quarterback told reporters he was “immunized” against the virus before the start of the football season. He then tested positive for COVID-19.
“I made some comments that people might have felt were misleading,” Rodgers said. “And to anybody who felt misled by those comments, I take full responsibility for those comments.”
Earlier this month, Biden took aim at those unwilling to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“There is no excuse — no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated,” Biden said while delivering remarks from the White House.
He added, “This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated. So we got to make more progress.”
The president warned Americans the omicron variant of the virus is a “very transmissible, transmissible variant, but much different than anything we’ve seen before.”
He continued, “You can protect yourself, and you should protect yourself, quite frankly. Get vaccinated, get boosted. There are plenty of booster shots. Wear a mask while you’re in public.”
UPDATE [04/05/22, 2:46 p.m. EST]:
After the publication of this article, a fact check was issued. IJR is adding this context for the benefit of our readers.
Health Feedback touches on the claim “75% of deaths were people with ‘at least four comorbidities.'” It cites that the U.S. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s comments “were about the proportions of vaccinated people who had severe outcomes from COVID-19.” In a January 7 interview, Walensky “spoke about a new study on the risk factors for severe COVID-19 cases in vaccinated adults.”