Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) at a hearing on Capitol Hill November 19, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Jacquelyn Martin – Pool/Getty Images
- In a tweet, House judiciary committee GOP members questioned COVID booster shots.
- “If the booster shots work, why don’t they work?” said the tweet.
- Ranking committee member Rep. Jim Jordan has long pushed COVID misinformation.
Republican members of the House judiciary committee have questioned the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination booster shots as cases of the Omicron variant continue to spread across the US.
“If the booster shots work, why don’t they work?” tweeted the official account of the 19 Republican members of the committee, whose ranking member is Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
In the tweet, the members don’t describe their grounds for questioning the effectiveness of the booster.
A follow-up tweet linked to an ABC News report on record numbers of COVID infections in the US due to the Omicron surge.
—House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) December 30, 2021
Jordan has long promoted misinformation about COVID and opposed vaccine mandates. In December, he claimed that “real America” was “done” with COVID-19.
He is one of several Republicans on the right-wing of the party who’ve rallied around opposition to Biden administration measures to contain the virus and questioned its severity.
But the disease continues to claim thousands of lives in the US daily, and there are growing concerns about the capacity of hospitals to cope with a new surge in patients sick with the fast-spreading Omicron variant, which is highly contagious and evades some vaccine protections.
On its website, the CDC says that the vaccine’s “effectiveness at preventing infection or severe illness wanes over time” and that a booster is necessary to shore up the body’s defenses against the disease.
“The recent emergence of the Omicron variant further emphasizes the importance of vaccination, boosters, and prevention efforts needed to protect against COVID-19.”
Jordan is an ally of former president Donald Trump. But Trump has provoked anger among some allies by advocating the vaccines. He was booed by some supporters at a recent event for saying he had himself gotten a booster shot. Insider’s Cheryl Teh reported that several factions of the right-wing were furious after Trump lauded the COVID-19 vaccines.
