To Follow the Science, Biden Administration Should Free the Science
Tony Perkins /
CDC can stand for many things: Conspiracy for Deceptive Calculations, Cartel for Democrats after Coronavirus—and probably more. But one thing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should stand for is good science.
Whether it does is up for debate, as public health experts like Dr. Martin Makary have criticized the agency for public health recommendations concerning vaccination of minors that are based on “very sloppy data.”
There’s no expert consensus behind many of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s policies. But instead of welcoming open scientific dialogue and inquiry, Makary says, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “dug in early” and “dismissed” any dissenting voices. The question is, why?
The Biden administration seems to sense the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on shaky ground. Last week, in a bid to suppress what it called “misinformation” about vaccines, the White House pressured social media companies to increase their censorship, which they are always eager to do.
YouTube even deleted a “Washington Watch” interview with a lawyer that didn’t even take a position on vaccines (after first denying our appeal, YouTube restored the interview following media pressure).
That interview, ironically, was about Washington, D.C., secretly vaccinating children at school. Why all the multilayered, secret authoritarianism?
The “sit down and shut up” dialogue style only breeds suspicion that the virus’ risks are magnified for political reasons. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s preservation of “proxy voting” beyond the end of the pandemic is clear political opportunism.
But the left can’t admit vaccine-hesitant people might be rational. In fact, the mainstream media would have you believe all public health dissenters are kooks. Kooks aren’t professors at the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Public Health, like Makary, or get published in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Other leading dissenters work at Harvard and Stanford. “Follow the science” includes listening to science that refutes your preconceived notions. At the very least, the credentials of Makary and others should earn them a hearing.
And Makary makes a good case against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To justify vaccinating children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites 335 COVID-19 deaths in minors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention never verified that these deaths were caused by COVID-19, said Makary, nor has it shown that healthy children are at the same risk as children with, say, leukemia.
In a Johns Hopkins study of 48,000 COVID-19-positive children, “no healthy kid died of COVID.” He said, “we’re imposing tremendous restrictions” on children, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refuses to say what risk COVID-19 poses to healthy children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also ignores the benefits of “natural immunity from prior infection.” Makary said if you’ve recovered from COVID-19, you probably don’t need the vaccine—although it can’t hurt.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only considers immunity gained from shots in the arm, even though evidence continues to mount of the long-term efficacy of natural immunity.
It’s easy to see why many people who recovered from COVID-19 have decided they are immune. It’s hard to see what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by simply ignoring natural immunity, has done to persuade them.
I have nothing against vaccines, but vaccine mandates are un-American and anti-freedom. Give people the information, and let them make an informed decision.
You’ll never be able to get consent through coercion. The Biden administration could make many good arguments to try and persuade more people to get the vaccine. Or it could revise its count to include natural immunity.
Instead, the Biden administration is spinning its wheels with two contradicting arguments: “Get the shot, or we’ll make you get it,” or, “Please get the shot, we’ll give you free stuff.” If President Joe Biden wants more Americans to get vaccinated, he should show more respect for their intelligence.
This article was originally published on frc.org.
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