No, President Biden didn’t tell people to get vaccinated ahead of Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm with 140 miles per hour winds. 

As people in Florida braced for impact, a video clip of President Joe Biden discussing being vaccinated as part of hurricane preparedness went viral.

“Let me be clear: If you’re 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 and a hurricane or a natural disaster hits,” Biden says in the clip.

THE QUESTION

Did President Biden tell people in the path of Hurricane Helene to get vaccinated?

THE SOURCES

• Transcript of President Joe Biden's statement from Aug. 10, 2021
• President Joe Biden’s press conference from Sept. 27, 2021
• The White House fact sheet with the preparation plan for Hurricane Ian

THE ANSWER

No, President Biden didn’t tell people in the path of Hurricane Helene to get vaccinated. The video is from 2021 and is being shared out of context.

WHAT WE FOUND

The video clip of Biden talking about COVID-19 vaccination and hurricane preparedness wasn’t from September 2024 ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall. Biden made those comments in August 2021, during a briefing with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and COVID-19 response teams.

During the briefing, held on Aug. 10, 2021, Biden said being vaccinated would provide more protection for people who might have to take shelter during hurricane season or during any natural disaster. Here is what he said: 

“With the Delta variant, we’re seeing a pandemic of the unvaccinated.  Cases and hospitalizations are rising faster in states with low vaccination rates, such as Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, which are the states that — from a hurricane-prone — they’re the states that are most at risk.

And so, we don’t wait until it’s too late.  And if, God forbid, a natural disaster strikes, we have to make sure we’re ready to be protected against COVID-19 as well.

Let me be clear: If you’re 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 and a hurricane or a natural disaster hits.

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’re going to be confronting.” 

This is not the first time this video has been shared out of context. In September 2022, it was being shared in connection with Hurricane Ian. In 2022, when Biden spoke publicly about Hurricane Ian, he didn’t mention COVID-19 vaccination as part of his administration’s preparation plan for Hurricane Ian. 

There is also no mention of COVID-19 vaccination in a White House fact sheet on how the administration was preparing to help those affected by Hurricane Ian.