Sarah Palin spoke at Americafest, an event hosted by the conservative student group Turning Point USA in Phoenix on Sunday. She’s making headlines for firmly stating she will not be vaccinated against COVID-19. She said she’ll get vaccinated ‘over my dead body’ and that’s the headline in many of the stories today.

The statement sounds newsworthy, right? It’s not really, though. It’s a little dramatic, sure, but speeches are best when they entertain the audience. In this case, Palin is making a point that she has natural immunity from having COVID last March. She isn’t anti-vax, she’s pro-natural immunity, which she now has. At least two of her children have natural immunity, too, as they were sick when she was. Palin’s beef is with the inconsistent messaging coming from Fauci and others during the pandemic, which I think we can all agree has been a problem for many people. Palin claims Fauci misled Americans when he said those who are infected with COVID have natural immunity. Now he insists that everyone gets vaccinated, regardless of a previous infection with the virus.

After her diagnosis, Palin advised everyone to take the virus seriously and wear a mask. She was particularly concerned about people with special needs becoming infected, like her son Trig.

Palin said it was Fauci’s ‘inconsistent’ comments about natural immunity that has dissuaded her from getting vaccinated.

‘Do you remember he said that if you had Covid, you would be naturally immune?’ Palin said during an on-stage interview with Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of TPUSA.

‘So at the time we were led to believe we wouldn’t need to have the shot. Well, then they changed their tune. Those of us who have had Covid, they’re telling us that even though we’ve had it – we have natural immunity – now that we still have to get a shot.’

She added: ‘And it’ll be over my dead body that I get a shot.

‘I will not. I won’t do it and they better not touch my kids either.’

The virus worked its way through her household, the first to be diagnosed was her daughter. Next, she began feeling symptoms, followed by Trig, her twelve-year-old son born with Down syndrome.

‘[O]ne of my daughters awoke to having lost her sense of taste and smell [and] immediately had a positive COVID test, then was quarantined in isolation,’ she said.

After initially testing negative, Palin said she developed coronavirus symptoms ‘overnight’ and suffered a fever, muscle soreness and loss of taste and smell.

It was unmistakable that ‘COVID caught me,’ she said.

‘That day I finally tested positive — like millions of other Americans,’ she said.

Palin then observed symptoms in son Trig.

‘Children with special needs are vulnerable to COVID ramifications, so with a high fever he was prescribed azithromycin, which really seemed to help, and I increased amounts of vitamins I put in his puréed food,’ she said.

So, she encouraged Americans to wear masks, saying it was “better than doing nothing.” She released a statement at the time which said, ‘I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there.’ She noted there are lots of viruses and they are unavoidable so vigilance is the best way to protect yourself. She said to stay calm and do what you can to live a healthy lifestyle so if you do get sick, you are better prepared to fight it. It’s all about common sense.

Fauci was asked about an Israeli study in September during an appearance on CNN. That study said that people who have recovered from COVID-19 received greater protection with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. That is when he began advising people to go ahead and get vaccinated even if they had recovered from COVID. His suggestion was the same as the one coming from the CDC. In September Palin appeared on FNC and said she has natural immunity and doesn’t need to be ‘I do believe in science and the Faucism of the day back then was if you’ve had COVID, I’ve had COVID, well then mother nature was creating an immunity into me.’ vaccinated.

Her remarks at the weekend event are consistent with what she’s been saying all along. Take the virus seriously, use mitigation measures, and trust common sense. She believes her natural immunity will protect her and that is her choice to make. None of this is radical thinking. The media likes to make Sarah Palin out to be some kind of right-wing nut so they pounced on her “over my dead body” hyperbole.

Is Palin looking to make a political comeback? Creating a little publicity for herself doesn’t hurt, especially if she is speaking up for personal freedom using her personal experience. In August, Trump voiced his support for a candidate challenging Senator Lisa Murkowski’s bid for re-election. Palin began teasing a message that she may consider jumping into the race herself, “If God wants me to do it I will.” Last month, for some reason, Joe Biden took a shot at Palin. He was talking about working with governors while he was vice-president – except for the one who “can see Alaska from her porch.” Typical Joe Biden – he flubbed that line. And, Sarah never actually said she could see Russia from her house in the first place. Is he concerned about a political comeback for Palin? Biden isn’t even capable of delivering a snarky remark correctly. What a maroon.

In November, Murkowski formally announced she would run for re-election. Trump endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in the race after Murkowski voted for Trump’s impeachment. Her poll numbers sank after that vote but since then her numbers have been slowly creeping back up. Senator Rick Scott, chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, said the committee supports Murkowski, and all the Republican incumbents running for re-election. We’ll wait and see now if Sarah Palin feels it’s her time to get back into politics with a run for the Senate.