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On Dec. 17, 2021, a screenshot supposedly showing a White House statement that warned of a winter of severe illness and death was widely circulated on social media: This is a genuine excerpt from a statement released by a White House. Some social media users appeared to have been under the impression that this was a standalone statement (i.e., that the White House had released these two paragraphs praising the vaccinated and chastising the unvaccinated without context or explanation), but that wasn't the case. This is an excerpt from a much longer press briefing. The above-displayed statement was spoken by Jeffrey Zients, counselor to the president of the United States, as he introduced a team of doctors and public health officials at the beginning of a press briefing by the White House COVID-19 Response Team. Zients' comments are reproduced in full below (see also the official White House transcript). The text from the viral screenshot is highlighted below: Zients' comments can be viewed below. The viral passage can be heard around the 4:30 mark:
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