SARAH Palin has got Covid again, after saying that she'd get the vaccine "over her dead body."

The former Alaska governor was previously diagnosed with Covid in March 2021.

It means that the politician's legal battle with The New York Times was delayed.

The defamation lawsuit against the Times, brought by Palin in 2017, was set to go to trial on Monday in federal court in Manhattan.

Her case survived an initial dismissal that was reversed on appeal in 2019, setting the stage for a rare instance that a major news organization will have to defend itself before a jury in a libel case involving a major public figure.

Palin, 57, claims the Times damaged her reputation with an opinion piece penned by its editorial board that falsely asserted her political rhetoric helped incite the 2011 shooting of then-Arizona US Rep. Gabby Giffords.

The newspaper has conceded the initial wording of the editorial was flawed, but not in an intentional or reckless way that made it libelous.

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It’s presumed that Palin will be the star witness in the civil case, taking the stand to back up accusations that the Times should pay damages for hurting her budding career as a political commentator.

There was no response to messages left last week with her lawyers asking if and when she will testify.

Palin sued the Times in 2017, citing the editorial about gun control published after Louisiana US Rep. Steve Scalise, also a Republican, was wounded when a man with a history of anti-GOP activity opened fire on a Congressional baseball team practice in Washington.

In the editorial, the Times wrote that, before the 2011 mass shooting that severely wounded Giffords and killed six others, Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.

In a correction two days later, The Times said the editorial had “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting” and that it had “incorrectly described” the map.

The disputed wording had been added to the editorial by James Bennet, then the editorial page editor.

At trial, a jury would have to decide whether he acted with “actual malice,” meaning that he knew what he wrote was false, or with “reckless disregard” for the truth.

In pretrial testimony, Bennet cited deadline pressures as he explained that he did not personally research the information about Palin’s political action committee before approving the editorial’s publication.

He said he believed the editorial was accurate when it was published.

On Monday, Palin had a rapid PCR test at 10.15am, which later came back positive.

"She is, of course, unvaccinated," the judge reportedly said after her results were revealed.

Palin spoke out against the lifesaving Covid jab despite being diagnosed with the virus last year.

Appearing at Americafest, an event organized by Turning Point USA, Palin called on others to “stiffen their spines” and fight back against vaccine mandates.

“There is an empowerment in a group like this where we can kind of feed off each other,” she said.

Vaccine effectiveness & Omicron

Expert studies have shown that the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 is reduced by 90 percent or more among people who are fully vaccinated.

While there are breakthrough cases of Covid among people who are vaccinated, they are rare.

In the event of a breakthrough case, victims are highly unlikely to be hospitalized with severe or deadly symptoms from the virus.

Health officials have advised that the Omicron variant is more infectious and could lead to further breakthrough cases.

Yet the spread can be offset by all vaccinated Americans receiving a booster shot.

Current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant.

With other variants, like Delta, vaccines have remained effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death.

Studies have also shown that side effects from the vaccine are extremely rare.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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