Jimmy Kimmel has slammed the former Alaska governor and anti-vaxxer Sarah Palin for allegedly eating in a New York restaurant after getting a positive Covid test result.
“Typhoid Mary having linguini,” the comic mocked, in reference to a cook who was believed to have infected 53 people with the bacterial infection in the early 1900s. This week some have accused Ms Palin of “painting the town with Covid”.
“Sarah Palin, who is famously unvaccinated, tested positive again on Monday,” said Mr Kimmel on this Thursday night show. Ms Palin was in the city to attend a defamation trial againstThe New York Times that was pushed back due to her testing positive for coronavirus.
“In New York, you’re supposed to isolate for five days after a positive test – but that’s now how Alaska’s top hockey mom does it. She plays by her own rules,” said Mr Kimmel.
Anti-vaxxer Ms Palin told a crowd at a Turning Point conference in Phoenix before Christmas that it would be “over my dead body that I have to get a shot, I will not do it”.
Mr Kimmel questioned how Ms Palin managed to bypass the proof of vaccination requirement for eating indoors in the city at the upscale Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan she was visiting.
“The other night, she caught some flak for eating indoors at a restaurant, despite the fact that you’re supposed to show proof of vaccination to get in and she doesn’t have that,” Mr Kimmel said. “But now, after testing positive, she went back to the same restaurant – with Covid and a guy who’s coughing. There’s Typhoid Mary having some linguini or something,” he said.
Social media users are calling for a boycott of Elio’s, the restaurant Ms Palin visited, due to safety concerns.
“Tonight Sarah Palin returned to the restaurant to apologise for the fracas around her previous visit,” said Elio’s manager, Luca Guaitolini, in a statement to Gothamist on Wednesday night. “In accordance with the vaccine mandate and to protect our staff, we seated her outdoors … we are a restaurant open to the public, and we treat civilians the same.”
A spokesperson of the New York City Mayor has encouraged anyone in recent contact with Ms Palin to get tested for coronavirus.
“Any New Yorker who came into contact with Ms Palin [should] get tested, just as we encourage all New Yorkers to get tested regularly, especially those who believe they may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid-19,” spokesperson Eric Adams told Gothamist.
The Independent has contacted Sarah Palin and Elio’s for further comment.
Ms Palin’s trial will now begin on 3 February.
More than 878,000 people have died due to contracting Covid-19. Some 535 million people have received the Covid-19 vaccine in the United States under what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls “the most intense safety monitoring in US history”. Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
