U.S. public health agencies have become fully politicized under Team Biden and are not "following the science" on Covid vaccines, particularly when it comes to pushing the jab for toddlers, two doctors wrote in a substack.com post on July 14.
And anyone working for these agencies is terrified of speaking out for fear of having their careers and lives ruined but the Covid overlords, Dr. Marty Makary a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg an epidemiologist affiliated with the Florida Department of Health, wrote.
Doctors and scientists at the top levels of the NIH, FDA and CDC "are variously frustrated, exasperated and alarmed about the direction of the agencies to which they have devoted their careers," the doctors wrote.
The doctors cited one senior FDA official as saying: “It's like a horror movie I'm being forced to watch and I can't close my eyes. People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.”
The FDA official, Makary and Høeg note, was referring to two recent developments inside the agency: "First, how, with no solid clinical data, the agency authorized Covid vaccines for infants and toddlers, including those who already had Covid. And second, the fact that just months before, the FDA bypassed their external experts to authorize booster shots for young children."
At the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, several of its senior scientists have left over the last year, including the director, deputy director and chief medical officer, the doctors noted.
“They have no leadership right now. Suddenly there’s an enormous number of jobs opening up at the highest level positions,” one NIH scientist said.
The doctors noted that the individual from the health agencies they spoke with "would only agree to be quoted anonymously, citing fear of professional repercussions."
The CDC has experienced a similar exodus. “There’s been a large amount of turnover. Morale is low,” one high level official at the CDC said. “Things have become so political, so what are we there for?” Another CDC scientist said: “I used to be proud to tell people I work at the CDC. Now I’m embarrassed.”
Why are they embarrassed?
"In short, bad science," Makary and Høeg noted.
"The longer answer: that the heads of their agencies are using weak or flawed data to make critically important public health decisions. That such decisions are being driven by what’s politically palatable to people in Washington or to the Biden administration. And that they have a myopic focus on one virus instead of overall health."
That problem is most evident, and the stakes are highest, on official public health policy regarding children and Covid, the doctors wrote.
"First, they demanded that young children be masked in schools. On this score, the agencies were wrong. Compelling studies later found schools that masked children had no different rates of transmission. And for social and linguistic development, children need to see the faces of others," Makary and Høeg noted.
"Next came school closures. The agencies were wrong — and catastrophically so. Poor and minority children suffered learning loss with an 11-point drop in math scores alone and a 20% drop in math pass rates. There are dozens of statistics of this kind."
Next came natural immunity. "Wrong again," the doctors noted. "The vast majority of children have already had Covid, but this has made no difference in the blanket mandates for childhood vaccines. And now, by mandating vaccines and boosters for young healthy people, with no strong supporting data, these agencies are only further eroding public trust."
One CDC scientist told the doctors about her shame and frustration about what happened to American children during the pandemic: “CDC failed to balance the risks of Covid with other risks that come from closing schools,” the scientist said. “Learning loss, mental health exacerbations were obvious early on and those worsened as the guidance insisted on keeping schools virtual. CDC guidance worsened racial equity for generations to come. It failed this generation of children.”
An official at the FDA put it this way: “I can’t tell you how many people at the FDA have told me, ‘I don't like any of this, but I just need to make it to my retirement.’ ”
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday tweeted out a promo encouraging parents to get their toddlers vaccinated. Critics called the promo blatant propaganda.
Nothing matters more than keeping them safe.
If your child is 6 months or older, you can now help protect them from severe COVID illness by getting them a COVID vaccine. Talk to your child’s doctor about vaccines and visit https://t.co/jDq2UIq3Yj. #WeCanDoThis pic.twitter.com/rB4XpMOY5V — HHS.gov (@HHSGov) July 18, 2022
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