California Gov. Gavin Newsom.Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty
California Gov.Gavin Newsomand his aides are pushing back on tabloid claims he canceled a recent trip to a climate summit in Scotland because he secretly got sick from his recentCOVID-19booster and annual flu shot.
“That’s made up,” Newsom said on Wednesday during a visit to a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Los Angeles when asked to comment on an anonymously sourced report in Britain’sTheDaily Mail.
The outlet wrote that Newsom allegedly had a reaction to receiving both his COVID-19 booster shot and his flu shot within days of one another and was left feeling fatigued and weak.
“I had absolutely no impact whatsoever from the COVID shot, nor from the original or the booster. Absolutely none,” he told reporters Wednesday. “No fatigue. Even no soreness.”
Newsom stressed that people should “reflect” on “intentional misrepresentation and misinformation around the efficacy and safety of these vaccines.”
His office echoed that.
“Last week Governor Newsom worked in the Capitol with staff on urgent issues including COVID-19 vaccines for kids, boosters, ports, the forthcoming state budget and California’s continued economic recovery,” spokesman Daniel Lopez told PEOPLE in a statement. “He will have public events this week related to the economy and vaccines. Also, the Governor did not experience any adverse effects from his booster shot.”
Aides also shrugged off anonymous suspicions of a secret illness as silly, noting mild side-effects from vaccines are common and would not have needed to be hidden.
The speculation was prompted after the 54-year-old Newsom last monthsuddenly scuttleda planned trip to the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, also known as COP26.
The governor did not make another public appearance for nearly two weeks butdid attend the wedding last weekendof Getty great-granddaughter Ivy Getty, in San Fransisco. (He is a longtime friend of the family.)
Participating in a fireside chat at the2021 California Economic Summiton Tuesday, Newsom told the audience that his recent hiatus could be attributed to more time spent with family.
“The kids literally kind of had an intervention,” he said. “They couldn’t believe that I was going to miss Halloween … I’m defending myself. And my wife was going to go as well.”
“I had no damn choice,” he said. “I had to cancel that trip.”
The past two weeks, Newsom said, were largely been spent “catching up after a pretty intense period of time with the family, myself, my team — and it’s been probably the most productive week I’ve had since I’ve been governor.”
source: people.com
