CDC Director Walensky Fact-Checks Sean Hannity Claim on Vaccine Effectiveness

The head of the Centers for Disease Control appeared on Friday’s edition of The Beat with Ari Melber, who at one point asked Dr. Rochelle Walensky to respond to some questionable comments by Sean Hannity.

On Wednesday night, Hannity told his audience “the science shows the vaccine will not necessarily protect you. It’s not protecting many people.” After being widely criticized for those comments, a Fox News spokesperson told Mediaite he was referring to Walensky’s early August comments that the vaccines can no longer “prevent transmission.”

Before playing the clip Melber suggested that it’s “beneath” the CDC director to address it.

“I just want to be clear with viewers,” he said. “I’m not playing it because it’s reliable, but rather to give you the chance – on the record, CDC – to address it.”

After airing Hannity’s nonsense, Melber asked, “Your response?”

“My job is to give accurate information to the American people,” said Walensky. “The vast majority of people in this country who are getting infected with Covid, who are showing up in the hospitals with Covid, and now who are dying with Covid are people who have not received this vaccine. Over 85 million people in this country are eligible for a vaccine and are not receiving it.”

The MSNBC host pressed on, “So if somebody says that or repeats that, because this is how things go around, if they say, ‘Well I heard the vaccine does not quote unquote protect you,’ the CDC’s view of that belief or claim is that it’s false?”

“I believe that to be false,” she replied. “In fact, I would say even if you happen to be one of the breakthrough cases, your case will be far milder than if you didn’t have a vaccine.”

Watch above via MSNBC