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- Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee, announced she and two of her children contracted COVID-19.
- Palin urged Americans to wear masks, calling it "better than doing nothing to slow the spread" of the virus.
- A host of mostly Republican-led states have lifted their statewide pandemic restrictions, including mask mandates.
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Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee, announced on Wednesday that she had been infected with COVID-19 and urged Americans to wear masks, breaking from many of her Republican allies.
"Through it all, I view wearing that cumbersome mask indoors in a crowd as not only allowing the newfound luxury of being incognito, but trust it's better than doing nothing to slow the spread," Palin, 57, told People Magazine.
This comes just a few months after Palin campaigned for the Republican party in Georgia alongside Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an anti-masker and QAnon promoter, and spread the GOP lie that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."
The former governor of Alaska said she tested positive after one of her daughters and her 12-year-old son Trig, who has Down syndrome, were both infected. She said she experienced "bizarre" symptoms, including loss of taste and smell, and warned COVID-19 can "really knock you down." People Magazine said that these were recent diagnoses but it's unclear when exactly they fell ill.
"I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there," she said, adding that her case shows "anyone can catch this."
After making headlines last year for her performance on Fox's "Masked Singer," Palin joked, "History will show we Masked Singer visitors were masked before being masked was cool."
A host of mostly Republican-led states have lifted their statewide pandemic restrictions, including mask mandates, which experts say is helping fuel an uptick in COVID-19 cases. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called on GOP governors to reinstate their mask mandates and slow the reopening of their states.