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In December 2020, as the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines began in the United States, attention turned to prominent Republican lawmakers who had previously downplayed the extent and risk of the pandemic, or opposed face mask mandates, but then availed themselves of early access to the vaccine. On Dec. 22, CNN reported that: Among those prominent Republicans was U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. In late December, social media users began sharing a meme that contained a photograph of Ernst receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, along with the following text: On Dec. 21, Sawyer Hackett, an adviser to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, posted a widely shared tweet that contrasted Ernst's purported past claims about COVID-19 fatality statistics and her receiving the vaccine: The meme contained a significant degree of truth, but also misrepresented aspects of Ernst's record on COVID-19. During her Senate reelection campaign in 2020, Ernst did indeed falsely suggest the official death toll from COVID-19 was exaggerated because doctors had financial incentives to categorize unrelated deaths as being caused by the virus. She also opposed laws that would require the wearing of face masks in public places. However, Ernst never described the pandemic as a hoax, and discussed it in ways that suggested she took it rather seriously. While opposing legal mask mandates, she also repeatedly urged the public to wear a face mask in order to mitigate against the spread of COVID-19. On the whole, we are issuing a rating of Mixture. The following is an explanation of how we reached that conclusion. Ernst received the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 20, 2020. In a series of tweets, she posted a photograph of herself — the same photograph later included in the meme — and wrote: This component of the meme was therefore accurate — Ernst did indeed receive the vaccine, and the photograph of her doing so was authentic. Ernst never called the virus a hoax, and as early as March 2020, encouraged Iowans to take this seriously and each do our part to look out for one another. So this component of the meme was inaccurate. However, she did suggest that the official death toll from the virus had been exaggerated because doctors purportedly had a financial incentive to wrongly categorize unrelated deaths as being cause by COVID-19. During a campaign visit to Black Hawk County in August, an audience member suggested to Ernst that the official COVID-19 death toll had been exaggerated, promoting a set of false claims, also promulgated by President Donald Trump, which Snopes debunked at the time. According to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Ernst agreed with the man, saying she was so skeptical of the official figures, and adding These health-care providers and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if COVID is tied to it, so what do you think they’re doing? When pressed by a reporter after the event, Ernst elaborated, saying: When asked whether she believed figures for COVID deaths and cases were being inflated, Ernst replied: The meme's description of Ernst as an anti-masker was a stretch. Ernst expressed opposition to mask mandates — laws requiring the wearing of face masks in public spaces — but also consistently supported the use of face masks. During a Senate debate on Sept. 28, Ernst said wearing a face mask was important and that they work. However, she added that To mandate it, we know it's unenforceable, and we know that it doesn't work. On social media, Ernst has repeatedly encouraged the public to wear face masks as a way of combatting the spread of COVID-19, and in September, she was one of several prominent Republican senators who took part in a public information video advocating the use of face masks:
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