CDC Director Rochelle Walensky had a tumultuous time in office while presiding over the nation’s Covid pandemic response.
Walensky was called before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic under the threat of subpoena if she did not testify willingly.
“[I]t appears that maybe the Biden administration did not want you to speak regarding these topics,” Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said.
On Tuesday, ahead of her resignation from office on June 30, when she will ride off into the sunset as one of the nation’s most disastrous public health officials, she faced a humiliating public grilling from Rep. James Comer (R-KY). And she almost certainly lied about the Covid-19 vaccines. Watch:
“The CDC frequently communicated with Big Tech and social media companies to coordinate the censorship of posts that express skepticism or criticism of the Covid 19 vaccines,” Comer said. “Dr. Walensky, is there a difference between medical opinions and misinformation?”
“There are things that are scientifically proven over and over again in the literature and those eventually become fact, but I think that there are ways to interpret that, that, that…” she replied.
“Exactly,” Comer said. “Reasonable people disagree on a medical path forward. Correct? I mean that…”
“Yeah, but I would also say that when there is increasing science that leads to fact that more, more, and more people then generally agree…”
“I mean, patients often are advised to get a second opinion on, on medical advice,” Comer pointed out. “CDC records tower show that CDC officials sometimes flag social media posts, which they deem to be misinformation. My question is, did the CDC work with private companies to influence a censorship of dissent about vaccines?”
“You know, that topic is one that is under litigation in the court, so I will not be speaking to that…”
“Recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that during the Covid 19 pandemic, the establishment kind of waffled a bunch of facts and then asked for a bunch of things to be censored that in retrospect ended up being more debatable or true,” Comer added. “Did the CDC work with Meta or as I like to call it ‘Facebook’ still censor or otherwise alter any post?”
“Here’s what I can tell you,” Walensky replied. “The most important thing that has gotten out us out of this pandemic, I think is our vaccine and how well they work and how safe they’re…”
“I understand that,” Comer said.
“And it was really important that the American people understand how well they work and how safe they…”
“I understand it,” Comer reiterated. “But in terms of the communications…
“That is again, something that I’m not going to speak to ’cause it is currently under court.”
“So, you’re not going to answer the question,” Comer concluded.
“It is currently under court litigation,” Walensky repeated.
“I hear that so much on everything we do. It’s currently under investigation. Did the president take a bribe? ‘Dr. Jackson, it’s currently under investigation.’ Did the CDC ever work with Facebook to craft internal policies on centering posts regarding the Covid pandemic?”
“Again, this is something that is under court litigation,” Walensky said. “What I will say though, it is so very important to get correct factual information out to people to understand the overwhelming benefit of these vaccines over the very…”
The matter of whether CDC was giving people “correct factual information” is something we we will get to below.
“Did the CDC ever recommend that Facebook or other companies censure posts suggesting that vaccines did not prevent the infection or, or spread of Covid 19?” Comer asked.
“What was most important to CDC was to get information about how well the vaccines were working and how safe they are. And you know, many of the questions, all of the questions that you’re asking are along the same lines. They’re currently under litigation in the courts,” she replied.
“In one email, a CDC official tells a Twitter employee that CDC is working on a project with census to leverage their infrastructure to identify and monitor social media for vaccine misinformation,” Comer said. “And that they would quote like the opportunity to work with Twitter’s Trust team on a regular basis, discuss what they are seeing. So, director, did the CDC work on a regular basis with Twitter, other companies to monitor or censor vaccine misinformation?”
“Congressman, my answer is the same. It’s the same, it’s the same line of questioning. We wanted to get important information out to the people so that they would favor vaccines because they were working, they were preventing severe disease and death,” she replied.
“I understand, but it turns out that some of the perspectives that the government censored, like the lab leak theory and some questions about the vaccine were, were correct all along, but the government censored that a lab leak is possible. I would go even further to say the lab leak is probable. Even some in the government have admitted that the vaccine did not stop spread or infection. I’m not saying it was completely bad, but it did not stop the spread or infection.”
“I think actually if I could actually just correct that point,” she said. “And that is initially it did for the Wuhan strain and for the Alpha strain. All of the early data in the literature published in the New England Journal demonstrated that for those who worked, if you didn’t get infected, that you were not transmitting it to other people. And it had very high efficacy early on up to 96%. And, and that’s part of what it did change over time.”
This is certainly untrue for a number of reasons. Thus, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky appears to have lied before Congress.
In March 2021, when the Delta variant was only 0.1 percent of predominant SARS-CoV-2 strains in the United States, the CDC published a Science Brief that said, “A growing body of evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and potentially less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others. However, further investigation is ongoing.”
Also from March 2021, in the MMWR report: “Partial vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was 63% effective in preventing new SARS-CoV-2 infections in SNF residents, a disproportionately affected population excluded from initial preauthorization vaccine clinical trials.” Not 100% effective. 63% effective.
In late March, Fauci was unsure if the Covid vaccines could stop viral transmission.
“This is a question of extreme importance,” Fauci said at a White House coronavirus briefing. “This will help inform science-based decisions about mask use and about social distancing post-vaccination.”
However, in late March 2021, Walensky claimed to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that the “vaccinated” don’t carry the virus.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: “Our data from the CDC today suggest that vaccinated people do not carry the virus.” pic.twitter.com/9W1SHecSEm
— The Recount (@therecount) March 30, 2021
Incidentally, in her testimony before Congress today, Walensky said that the CDC does not have Covid data beyond what is provided by the states.
🚩 CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Reveals the Agency Never Had National-Level Data Linking Vaccinations & Hospitalizations
“At a national level we have never been able to get hospitalization, vaccination, and COVID [data]…We did not get data in aggregate on vaccination and… pic.twitter.com/MJDM6JC8O9
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) June 13, 2023
A CDC spokesperson in April 2021 would have to walk back comments made by Walensky in a statement to the New York Times.
“Dr. Walensky spoke broadly during this interview,” an agency spokesman told The Times. “It’s possible that some people who are fully vaccinated could get Covid-19. The evidence isn’t clear whether they can spread the virus to others. We are continuing to evaluate the evidence.”
In May 2021, the CDC would publish an MMWR report on the effectiveness of vaccinations against severe hospitalization that effectively admits that the vaccinated can test positive for Covid-19, thus possessing similar viral loads as the unvaccinated.
The CDC found in July 2021 that the viral loads between the vaccinated and unvaccinated were similar. Thus, the mRNA shots could not be “100% effective” at preventing “cases,” as was often claimed throughout 2021.
“Today, some of those data were published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), demonstrating that Delta infection resulted in similarly high SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people,” the CDC report said. “High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus.”
In a ‘hot mic’ moment in September 2021, Israel’s Health Minister admitted that there was never any scientific justification for Covid passports, which violate the basic human rights of bodily autonomy, privacy, and freedom of movement.
“There is no medical or epidemiological justification for the Covid passport, it is only intended to pressure the unvaccinated to vaccinate,” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said in video that was aired on Channel 12.
“Several ministers were overheard prior to a cabinet meeting on Sunday saying that some coronavirus-related restrictions are only aimed at incentivizing vaccination, rather than driving down morbidity, while lamenting that the unvaccinated are taking up hospital beds,” the Times of Israel reported on the incident.
In December 2021, Dr. Bakhdi explained that the mRNA shots were incapable of stopping the transmission of the virus for technical reasons.
“Vaccines that are injected into the muscle – i.e., the interior of the body – will only induce IgG and circulating IgA, not secretory IgA. Such antibodies cannot and will not effectively protect the mucous membranes from infection by SARS-CoV-2,” the article continues. “Thus, the currently observed ‘breakthrough infections’ among vaccinated individuals merely confirm the fundamental design flaws of the vaccines.”
“Measurements of antibodies in the blood can never yield any information on the true status of immunity against infection of the respiratory tract,” they add. “The inability of vaccine-induced antibodies to prevent coronavirus infections has been reported in recent scientific publications.”
In a March 2022 interview, Walensky also tried to rewrite history by claiming that nobody said that vaccines might wear off.
“Nobody said ‘waning’ when this vaccine is going to work, ‘oh well maybe it’ll wear off.’ Nobody said ‘well, what if…it’s not as potent against the next variant,’” she claimed. “I have frequently said ‘we’re going to lead with the science’…I think public heard that as ‘science is foolproof. Science is black and white.’…The truth is science is grey. And science is not always immediate.”
However, in February 2021, early on into the vaccinations, the CDC was already backtracking on how long the vaccinations might work.
“They must be fully vaccinated – having had both shots with at least two weeks having passed since the second shot,” the CNN report said. “But the CDC says protection may wear off after three months, so people who had their last shot three months ago or more should quarantine if they are exposed. They also should quarantine if they show symptoms, the CDC said.”
In October 2022, MEP member Rob Roos exposed a Pfizer executive who admitted there never was any scientific basis to claim that the MRNA vaccines could stop the spread.
🚨 BREAKING:
In COVID hearing, #Pfizer director admits: #vaccine was never tested on preventing transmission.
“Get vaccinated for others” was always a lie.
The only purpose of the #COVID passport: forcing people to get vaccinated.
The world needs to know. Share this video! ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/su1WqgB4dO
— Rob Roos MEP 🇳🇱 (@Rob_Roos) October 11, 2022
“If you don’t get vaccinated, you are antisocial,” Rob Roos said. “This is what the Dutch Prime Minister and Health Minister told us. You don’t get vaccinated just for yourself, but also for others. You do it for all of society. That’s what I said today. This turned out to be complete nonsense in a Covid hearing in the European parliament, one of the Pfizer directors just admitted to me at the time of introduction, the vaccine had never been tested on stopping the transmission of the virus.”
“This removes the entire legal basis for the Covid passport, the Covid passport that led to massive institutional discrimination as people lost access to essential parts of society,” Roos added. “I find this to be shocking, even criminal.”
The same could be said about the tenure of CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Why public health officials like herself and former top Covid adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci have been able to get away with lying before Congress is just more evidence of a rigged justice system, as well as a lack of accountability for the Big Lies told during the Covid pandemic response.
However, at least one Republican member attempted to hold Walensky accountable for “misleading the public”: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Rep. Jim Jordan: “Why did you and the Biden administration mislead the American people?”
Outgoing CDC DIRECTOR Walensky: “You’d have to say more.”
Rep. Jim Jordan: “You said vaccinated people do not carry the virus. Was that accurate?”
Outgoing CDC DIRECTOR Walensky:… pic.twitter.com/wE9TMECdpM
— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) June 13, 2023
“Why did you and the Biden administration mislead the American people?” Jordan asked.
“You’d have to say more,” Walensky replied.
“You said vaccinated people do not carry the virus. Was that accurate?” Jordan said.
“Generally accurate,” she claimed.
“Why not just tell us the truth?” Jordan shot back.
Indeed. That is the question the American people have been asking throughout the nation’s disastrous Covid pandemic response.
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OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
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