It is not uncommon for politicians or bureaucrats to lie. What seems to be unique, though, is just how common and consequential the lies were during the COVID pandemic.
On Monday, we got a bombshell. New documents indicate the entire justification for vaccine mandates was based on a falsehood — and that public health officials knew it.
Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and former NIH Director Francis Collins were aware of, and discussed, “breakthrough cases” of COVID in January 2021 — right when the vaccines became widely available.
In her email, Walensky says that “clearly,” it is an “important area of study,” links to a study raising the issue, and assures the person she is sending it to that Dr. Anthony Fauci is looped into these conversations.
However, in public, Walensky was saying something quite different.
Two months after discussing this data, she said vaccinated people “don’t carry the virus” and “don’t get sick.”
In a congressional hearing, after it became clear people were able to get infected with COVID even after receiving the vaccine, she defended her original statements by claiming it was true at the time she said it — namely, for the strands we were dealing with in early 2021.
We now know that was not true and that Walensky herself knew it was not true.
Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, called the revelation “stunning.” He pointed out that despite this knowledge, “they continued to push vax mandates anyway.”
This is the real scandal, as there is little harm in getting something like this wrong in a vacuum.
After all, COVID-19 vaccines certainly saved many, many lives and reduced the severity of infection for many more.
But the fact vaccine mandates were pushed, even though those in charge knew people could contract and spread the virus while vaccinated, is indefensible. That they mislead the public on this makes it even worse.
If the vaccine stopped COVID dead in its tracks, as Fauci explained, then the decision to institute a vaccine mandate would merely be a controversial yet ultimately legitimate public health measure.
The fact it did not do that but rather had primarily personal benefits completely removes the justification for mandates.
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