Are Guantanamo Prisoners Getting COVID Vaccines Before American Citizens?
A tweet from Charlie Kirk making such a claim came after the Pentagon had ‘paused’ a plan to offer it to detainees.
A viral tweet from Charlie Kirk claimed that under President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccination distribution plan, “terrorists in Guantanamo Bay would be receiving [the vaccine] before a vast majority of American citizens.”
The New York Times reported last week that the Pentagon would soon administer the coronavirus vaccine to all personnel at the Guantanamo facility. As a part of this plan, the vaccine would also “be offered to all detainees and prisoners.” With 31,123,299 vaccines administered in the United States as of January 31, Kirk is correct that this would have put the Guantanamo prisoners ahead of the vast majority of Americans. By the time Kirk sent out the tweet, however, the plan to vaccinate the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay had been walked back. The Pentagon press secretary shared through his Twitter account that no detainees in Guantanamo had been vaccinated and that the Pentagon was “pausing the plan to move forward.”
Kirk’s tweet is correct that the original plan was for prisoners of Guantanamo Bay to receive the coronavirus vaccine, but given the timing of his tweet and its lack of context his claim is misleading: As of right now, Guantanamo prisoners have not and are not receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
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While this is only slightly related to the fact at hand, I think it's nevertheless worth noting that Guantanamo houses approximately 40 detainees and 1,500 US personnel, the latter of which will be fully vaccinated. Which equates to about a 2.5% reduction in the amount of vaccine shipped to the facility.
If any of the personnel there get COVID because the close-quartered prisoners sustain an outbreak, the blood is on the hands of Charlie Kirk and all of the Republican water-carriers (ex. Andrew McCarthy) who demagogued this.