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Laura Ingraham loses her cool as Alan Dershowitz challenges her anti-vax narrative

‘Covid is worse than smallpox’ says former Harvard Law professor

Helen Elfer
Friday 30 July 2021 16:41 BST
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Fox TV host Laura Ingraham locked horns with lawyer Alan Dershowitz over the prospect of mandated vaccinations.

Mr Dershowitz, was arguing the case for compulsory vaccination and made a comparison between Covid-19 and smallpox on The Ingraham Angle.

He said: “As far as mandating vaccination, I think the Supreme Court would uphold gradual mandating of vaccination. First, conditioning going to school on getting vaccinated, conditioning getting on airplanes, conditioning getting in crowded buildings.”

The former Harvard Law School professor continued, telling Ms Ingraham that George Washington had mandated vaccination against smallpox for his troops during the Revolutionary War.

Ms Ingraham, who has taken a consistent anti-vax stance throughout the pandemic, tried to cut him off, shaking her head and saying firmly: “I disagree with this analysis. Covid-19 is not smallpox.”

The exchange heated up as she said: ‘This is not a fully-approved vaccine either.”

“Neither was the smallpox vaccine in 1905”, retorted Mr Dershowitz, referencing the United States Supreme Court case Jacobson v. Massachusetts about smallpox vaccines, in which the Court upheld the authority of states to enforce compulsory vaccination laws.

He went on: “I think Covid is worse than smallpox in many ways, it may not kill as many people but we don’t know what the longterm impact is.”

“It’s killed 300 million people worldwide” said Ms Ingraham, presumably meaning smallpox.

Mr Dershowitz then said: “I have the right to get on an airplane and know that everybody on that airplane is vaccinated or tested. You may have the right not to get vaccinated but you have no right to spread the disease to me. Even if you won’t kill me, I don’t want long-term effects.”

Visibly riled, Ms Ingraham started laughing.

“Professor, have you not been listening?” she asked. “I may not have gone to Harvard Law School, but I did hear the president today talk about how if you’re vaccinated you still can spread the virus. The data out of Israel, the data out of the UK, they’re freaking out about this.”

“It’ll be spread much less seriously,” replied Mr Dershowitz.

“You can’t deprive people of their constitutional rights  on the basis of a vaccine that still allows the spread of the virus … ok,” said Ms Ingraham, before wrapping up the segment, saying: “We gotta go … I get ya. It’s not smallpox. Professor, thank you.”

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