Posted on 09/06/2025 6:31:32 AM PDT by MtnClimber
By some strange coincidence, no sooner did I write yesterday’s post about the thoroughly corrupt CDC and its recently-fired Director, Susan Monarez, than there turns up in today’s Wall Street Journal an op-ed by the same Ms. Monarez trying to justify herself and the agency with regard to HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. The headline is “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC and Me.” The sub-headline (online edition only) is “I was fired after 29 days because I held the line and insisted on rigorous scientific review.” The article is behind the Journal’s paywall, so I will provide some substantial quotes.
The theme of the piece, well-summarized in the sub-headline, is that Ms. Monarez, with the help of CDC colleagues, was fired for trying to hold the line against “pressure to compromise science itself.” The particular question in Monarez’s firing was evaluation of the efficacy and risks of the Covid vaccines. But Monarez frames the issue in lofty principles of the honest scientists against the barbarians. Excerpts:
[H]undreds of CDC employees told me the same thing: We need to take immediate steps to rebuild public trust. That’s the CDC I know: service before self. . . . If discarding evidence for ideology becomes the norm, why should parents, physicians or the public trust the CDC’s guidance?. . . . Public health shouldn’t be partisan. Vaccines have saved millions of lives under administrations of both parties. Parents deserve a CDC they can trust to put children above politics, evidence above ideology and facts above fear.
Oddly Ms. Monarez writes as if CDC exemplifies these ideals, without ever saying a word about the facts, which are that CDC, over the course of decades, completely abandoned the principles of honest science in favor of bureaucratic aggrandizement and partisanship.
“Public health shouldn’t be partisan”? Really? How is “addressing the [fake] public health consequences of the climate crisis” not partisan? How is trying to make gun control a “public health” issue so that CDC can meddle in it not partisan? How is it not partisan when you accuse everybody who doesn’t acquiesce in land acknowledgements and abandonment of meritocracy of white supremacism?
The fact is that the business of CDC for decades has been repeatedly trying to scare the people out of their wits about some health issue in order to justify more power and bigger mission and more staff and a bigger budget for CDC.
And about those “hundreds of CDC employees” who think the agency must take immediate steps to “rebuild public trust.” All of those people were there when CDC veered off into the rank partisanship of climate change and gun control and land acknowledgements and accusations of white supremacy against political opponents, let alone into supporting (if not actually mandating) anti-Covid measures with no evidentiary support like lockdowns and masking requirements. And none of them thought this was any problem, or at least not enough of a problem to speak up. There is nothing any of these people could do at this point to rebuild trust with me, and I suspect the same is true for most other Americans.
And as to the crux of the current dispute, the efficacy of the Covid vaccines: Ms. Monarez states in her piece that the “vaccines have saved millions of lives.” Really? How do you know that? You are the one who is claiming the mantle of science, so kindly show us your proof. In my view, real science demands complete skepticism about all scientific claims. For a vaccine, one would start with the results of a double-blind trial against a placebo, with adequate sample size, sufficient to falsify the null hypothesis that the placebo works as well or better. With Covid, advocates of effectiveness of the vaccines also need to address the issue that many of the most vulnerable had already died by the time the vaccines started use, which may skew the results toward a false appearance of effectiveness. And then there is the issue of side effects. I have strong reason to believe that information as to adverse side effects of the Covid vaccines has been systematically downplayed and suppressed, and that CDC has played a significant role in this suppression. Prove me wrong!
In her piece, Ms. Monarez claims that “trusted experts” on the subject of the vaccines are being “removed” from advisory bodies, and those bodies are being “stacked” with anti-vaxxers. But are the people Ms. Monarez calls “trusted experts” actually neutral and skeptical scientists, or are they rather committed vaccine advocates, let alone shills for big pharma? I don’t know the answer to that, but I certainly have no reason to trust prior CDC selections for these bodies to come to the right answer. By the way, I don’t have any reason either to trust RFK, Jr. or the people he may select for these bodies. I’ll make my own decisions, thank you.
How about, just make any relevant studies available and we will decide for ourselves. Meanwhile, we can save a lot of money by firing everybody at CDC.
Yep. To add to that, in the pre-vaccine days, in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, about 5% of the world’s population died from the flu.
Yet people today, many of whom may be too young to remember the pre-polio vaccines and others, want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
This doesn’t help out the conservative cause.
When a Leftist virtue signals by saying the land we are on was stolen from the Indians. But they never offer to give their own land back to the Indians. I would love for Indians to take over their mansions with the legal justification that the homeowner admitted it was stolen and that Indians are the rightful owners.
Diphtheria is a serious disease caused by a bacterium. This germ produces a poisonous substance or toxin which frequently causes heart and nerve problems. The case fatality rate is 5 percent to 10 percent, with higher case-fatality rates (up to 20 percent) in the very young and the elderly.
In the 1920’s, diphtheria was a major cause of illness and death for children in the U.S. In 1921, a total of 206,000 cases and 15,520 deaths were reported. With vaccine development in 1923, new cases of diphtheria began to fall in the U.S., until in 2001 only two cases were reported.
Although diphtheria is rare in the U.S., it appears that the bacteria continue to get passed among people. In 1996, 10 isolates of the bacteria were obtained from persons in an American Indian community in South Dakota, none of whom had classic diphtheria disease. There was one death reported in 2003 from clinical diphtheria in a 63 year old male who had never been vaccinated.
There are high rates of susceptibility among adults. Screening tests conducted since 1977 have shown that 41 percent to 84 percent of adults 60 and over lack protective levels of circulating antitoxin against diphtheria.
Although diphtheria is rare in the U.S., it is still a threat. Diphtheria is common in other parts of the world and with the increase in international travel, diphtheria and other infectious diseases are only a plane ride away. If we stopped immunization, the U.S. might experience a situation similar to the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union. With the breakdown of the public health services in this area, diphtheria epidemics began in 1990, fueled primarily by persons who were not properly vaccinated. From 1990-1999, more than 150,000 cases and 5,000 deaths were reported.
RFK flat out called her a liar
Before pertussis immunizations were available, nearly all children developed whooping cough. In the U.S., prior to pertussis immunization, between 150,000 and 260,000 cases of pertussis were reported each year, with up to 9,000 pertussis-related deaths.
Pertussis can be a severe illness, resulting in prolonged coughing spells that can last for many weeks. These spells can make it difficult for a person to eat, drink, and breathe. Because vomiting often occurs after a coughing spell, persons may lose weight and become dehydrated. In infants, it can also cause pneumonia and lead to brain damage, seizures, and mental retardation.
The newer pertussis vaccine (acellular or DTaP) has been available for use in the United States since 1991 and has been recommended for exclusive use since 1998. These vaccines are effective and associated with fewer mild and moderate adverse reactions when compared with the older (whole-cell DTP) vaccines.
“January 19,2021”
“Children make up 12.6% of all cases in the U.S. At least 10,182 children have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic and 191 have died, according to the AAP/CHA report. Data were not available from all states.”
“About 1.8% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations and 0.06% of the deaths have been among children. About 0.8% of children with a known case of COVID-19 have been hospitalized and 0.01% have died.”
The risk of a child not getting vaccinated against Covid is likely going to be quite similar to the risk in pre-Covid vaccination days - about 1 in 10,000 might need hospitalization and about 1 in 500,000 might die from Covid.
At $100/vaccination, it is likely to cost ~$1 million to prevent a childhood Covid hospitalization and ~$50 million to prevent a childhood Covid death.
Of course she runs to the Trump haters at the WSJ. A very large percentage believe the WSJ is still a reliable right of center news source. They are as bad as the rest of them thanks to the Murdoch kids.
“At $100/vaccination, it is likely to cost ~$1 million to prevent a childhood Covid hospitalization and ~$50 million to prevent a childhood Covid death.”
$50 million that could have gone to education and other things to prevent childhood obesity, diabetes and other things.
The CDC — sorry — the CDC political bureaucracy and their “medical experts” lost all credibility during the Fauci Flu debacle ... as they should have. Those “experts” and “doctors” who advised people with compromised immune systems that as long as they wore a mask and associated only with others wearing a mask they would be “protected” and “safe” from contracting, spreading or getting sick from the airborne virus are truly guilty of criminal malpractice and should be held to account.
Be aware that even if a child doesn’t die from a disease, a sick child may miss school for a few days or even more than a week. The child’s parent(s) will likely also miss work and lose income.
Dr. Fauci told everybody earlier on that masks were essentially worthless.
People later on were told to wear them and to stay at least 6 feet apart. This was because the measures had a small, but not zero value.
Is Kennedy saying NO to vaccinations? Or questioning the utility of many of the 69 plus vaxes children get these days?
Does trolling ever get tiresome?
At some point, persons being born in 2025 should probably get a Covid vaccine.
The question is when.
At birth? Probably not.
On their first birthday? Probably not, unless mom was never sick with Covid or not vaccinated against Covid.
Shortly before entering school? Quite possibly.
Before getting sick when Covid is spreading locally? Almost certainly in my opinion.
At least once before getting old age Social Security? Almost certainly in my opinion.
Should a child be refused public schooling because of a lack of Covid vaccination? Almost certainly not in my opinion.
Should you be forced to take a vaccine? Never in a free society.
Should you lose your job as a nurse because you refuse to get vaccinated? Quite probably.
Should you as such a nurse be refused unemployment compensation because of a creditable fear of a vaccine? Not in a society that puts up asylum claimants in $300/night hotels.
Smug arrogant bureaucrat. A walking talking example of what’s wrong with DC.
“Does trolling ever get tiresome?”
I provide information from sources I believe to be credible.
Some people relish ignorance.
Club Stupid USA never lacks for members, sad to say.
My body, my choice is all you should need say, unless you have parts of another person’s DNA and a second heart and second brain in your abdomen.
If you wish to spread lies, expect my opposition. I strongly suspect leftists are trying to make conservatives look stupid by feeding them lies. I will fight both these leftists and mislead conservatives vigorously.
ASAP!
Susan, YOU’RE FIRED. 😭😁
When I was very young a kid gets measles the parents in the neighborhood and/or parents of classmates get together and have a meaasles paarty to get it all over with and attain immunity for all their kids. No one died therefrom. No one was hospitalized. Same with chickenpox though a few as adults got shingles which their docs atributed to childhood chickenpox.
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