Unvaccinated former Alaska Republican governor Sarah Palin tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday forcing a postponement of the start of a trial in her defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, The Associated Press reports.
Palin is suing the paper claiming that a 2017 editorial damaged her reputation by falsely asserting that her political rhetoric helped incite the 2011 shooting of then-Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona.
Moments before the trial was set to begin U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff announced Palin had tested positive.
“Ms. Palin has tested positive for coronavirus. She is, of course, unvaccinated,” Rakoff said.
Palin is permitted to show up to court on Feb. 3 even if she is positive for COVID, just as long as she is asymptomatic, according to AP. If she has symptoms, a doctor who works with the court will examine her on Feb. 2.
Palin has had COVID before and urged people not to take the vaccine. She told an audience in Arizona last month “it’ll be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot.”
