Gavin Newsom Responds to 'Made Up' Claim He Secretly Got Sick from Flu Shot and COVID Booster

Justin Sullivan/Getty California Gov. Gavin Newsom

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his aides are pushing back on tabloid claims he canceled a recent trip to a climate summit in Scotland because he secretly got sick from his recent COVID-19 booster and annual flu shot.

"That's made up," Newsom said on Wednesday during a visit to a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Los Angeles when asked to comment on an anonymously sourced report in Britain's The Daily Mail.

The outlet wrote that Newsom allegedly had a reaction to receiving both his COVID-19 booster shot and his flu shot within days of one another and was left feeling fatigued and weak.

"I had absolutely no impact whatsoever from the COVID shot, nor from the original or the booster. Absolutely none," he told reporters Wednesday. "No fatigue. Even no soreness."

Newsom stressed that people should "reflect" on "intentional misrepresentation and misinformation around the efficacy and safety of these vaccines."

His office echoed that.

"Last week Governor Newsom worked in the Capitol with staff on urgent issues including COVID-19 vaccines for kids, boosters, ports, the forthcoming state budget and California's continued economic recovery," spokesman Daniel Lopez told PEOPLE in a statement. "He will have public events this week related to the economy and vaccines. Also, the Governor did not experience any adverse effects from his booster shot."

Despite the online chatter caused by Newsom's trip cancellation for "family obligations," his office has played down the extent to which he was not publicly visible in recent days, noting he was still working the whole time and did not, ultimately, cancel anything beyond the climate trip.

RELATED: Gavin Newsom Says He Canceled Climate Summit Trip to Be with Family: 'I Had No Damn Choice'

Aides also shrugged off anonymous suspicions of a secret illness as silly, noting mild side-effects from vaccines are common and would not have needed to be hidden.

The speculation was prompted after the 54-year-old Newsom last month suddenly scuttled a planned trip to the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, also known as COP26.

The governor did not make another public appearance for nearly two weeks but did attend the wedding last weekend of Getty great-granddaughter Ivy Getty, in San Fransisco. (He is a longtime friend of the family.)

Participating in a fireside chat at the 2021 California Economic Summit on Tuesday, Newsom told the audience that his recent hiatus could be attributed to more time spent with family.

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"The kids literally kind of had an intervention," he said. "They couldn't believe that I was going to miss Halloween ... I'm defending myself. And my wife was going to go as well."

Following the pleas from his kids not to leave them on Halloween, Newsom said he woke up the next morning with "something that is probably familiar to a lot of parents: that knot in your stomach."

"I had no damn choice," he said. "I had to cancel that trip."

The past two weeks, Newsom said, were largely been spent "catching up after a pretty intense period of time with the family, myself, my team — and it's been probably the most productive week I've had since I've been governor."

* With reporting by ADAM CARLSON