Fact Check: Biden’s Hurricane Milton Advice Was Not ‘Get Vaccinated’

Hurricane Milton’s approach has triggered evacuation orders for more than half the counties in Florida and a public health emergency across the state, with the storm forecast to make landfall near Tampa Bay this evening.

The currently Category 5 hurricane will bring intense rainfall, catastrophic storm surges, and wind speeds of 160 miles per hour. As much as 18 inches of rainfall is forecast in certain regions, which is expected to cause flash flooding.

Amid the disaster planning, misinformation has spread quickly, including a claim online this week that President Joe Biden had been advising Floridians to “get vaccinated” as part of their preparations.

The Claim

Multiple social media posts sent between October 8 and October 9, 2024, suggested President Biden had advised getting vaccinated as part of preparations for Hurricane Milton.

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by the account @stopvaccinating on October 8, said: “Resident Biden actually said to get vaccinated now because of the incoming hurricane.

“You can’t make up how much they hate us!”

The post included a link to another post by vaccine skeptic Dr. Ben Tapper, which included a video of Biden saying: “Let me be clear. If you are in a state where hurricanes often strike, like Florida, or the Gulf Coast, or into Texas, a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now.

“Everything is more complicated if you’re not vaccinated when a hurricane or natural disaster hits.”

Another post by @MyLordBebo on October 9 included the same video and said: “Biden’s pre hurricane message to Americans!

“GET VACCINATED NOW.”

Vaccine conspiracy theorist Simon Goddek posted the same video on October 8, with a message toward liberal commentators Ed and Brian Krassenstein: “listen to your senile idol and make sure to get boosted for Hurricane Milton protection!”

The Facts

Some of the posts above directly link Biden’s remarks to Hurricane Milton. Others either strongly suggest or imply that the president is talking about the storm or fail to provide enough information or context to be misleading.

In any case, the video has nothing to do with Hurricane Milton. It was filmed more than three years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the Covid-19 vaccines were being rolled out across the nation.

The full video of Biden’s remarks is still available online.

Biden held the press conference in early August 2021, ahead of the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, as cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 were spreading.

The comments were not delivered as part of a response to a named storm or weather pattern but out of caution if citizens couldn’t access health care services or could risk spreading or catching the disease if they were sent to a shelter unvaccinated.

“If you wind up having to evacuate, if you wind up having to stay in a shelter, you don’t want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers that you are going to be confronting,” Biden said.

“Get vaccinated now so you are ready for whatever may come this month.”

From false claims that the weather can be controlled and that FEMA is confiscating people’s possessions, Hurricane Helene and Milton have been used to advance conspiratorial and conservative theories online.

One video posted earlier this week attempted to suggest that members of the LGBTQ+ community were being put ahead of all other groups during disaster preparation. The video, however, was taken out of context, taken from a roundtable panel discussing how natural disasters may disadvantage LGBTQ+ communities.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

President Biden did not say that people preparing for Hurricane Milton should get vaccinated. The video of Biden telling people to get vaccinated ahead of hurricane season was recorded more than three years ago, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and not in address to any particular storm or hurricane.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team