The White House will not vet people to determine if they are vaccinated against COVID-19 before permitting them inside the executive mansion.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to use the term “honor system” on Friday, saying that it was “confusing.” Instead, she repeated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that suggests the best way to guard against COVID-19 is to get immunized or wear a mask.
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“That’s not the role we’re going to play,” Psaki told reporters.
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Later in the briefing, she reiterated that a federal government-led effort to verify inoculation against COVID-19 is “not in our intended plan.”
The White House welcomed the most people through its gates this week since President Joe Biden was inaugurated amid the pandemic. The East Room, for instance, was crowded with more than 50 mostly maskless people twice, once for the signing of the bipartisan COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and again for a Medal of Honor ceremony celebrating retired Army Col. Ralph Puckett Jr., a Korean War veteran.
Aides and guests were seen shaking hands, hugging, and kissing in between the formalities, at odds with pandemic social-distancing precautions.
“We’re back,” Psaki said. “I can confirm we are a warm and fuzzy crew, and we like to hug around here, but we were waiting for that to be allowed by CDC guidelines, which we certainly abide by.”
The updated CDC recommendations, relaxed given the country’s high vaccination rate, also meant there would be a full press briefing room “very soon,” Psaki added. The CDC last week issued new guidance indicating that immunized people were at low risk of contracting COVID-19 and no longer needed to wear masks indoors or outdoors, except in specific circumstances.
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“It includes having more events with more people and certainly continuing to open the White House up, the ‘people’s house’ up, to the American public,” she said.
