Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said in an interview published Friday that she is “pro-vaccine,” but acknowledged her previous statements on the issue have been a “self-inflicted wound.”
“I’m pro-vaccine. Pro-medicine,” Williamson, a self-help author, told The Hollywood Reporter.
{mosads}Williamson was challenged last month in a contentious interview on “The View” over her previous statements calling vaccine mandates “draconian” and “Orwellian.”
“My sloppiness in talking about that was a self-inflicted wound,” Williamson said.
But she added “The View” co-hosts treated her unfairly.
“I said to Joy Behar during the break, ‘Why are you doing this? I’m a liberal,’ ” Williamson said. “ ‘Why are you doing this?’ She said, ‘What are you talking about? I’ve always been good to you.’ I said, ‘Until today you have been.’ I don’t understand it.”
Williamson has been trying to walk back her skeptical statements about vaccines, which are widely affirmed by public health experts as being safe and necessary, though she still said in Friday’s interview that there could be questions about them.
“Any time there is a medical intervention, there is both benefit and risk,” she said. “Government must come down on the side of public health.”
“Having said that, I understand that many areas having to do with food, health and safety are places where Americans have questions,” she added. “And I don’t believe that questioning should be squashed. There is intelligent nuance that should be respected.”