To put a bow on my frustration yesterday with the CDC, here is Jim Gergahty's
National Review column
The Morning Jolt from today, which articulates my view and references a Washington Post story, which unfortunately I can't link to because of the paywall (link provided in his original source). Geraghty's measured pandemic reporting has been some of the best out there.
One of the really fascinating developments of this week has been health experts noting with frustration that the CDC hasn’t released the data to justify these recent reversals and are urging the federal agency to release this information. Now, the scientists are the ones expressing skepticism about SCIENCE™. There are concerning reports that this CDC decision was driven by the results of a study about breakthrough infections in India — where they’re using the AstraZeneca vaccine, not the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines that Americans have received. Right on the CDC’s website, it declares that, “Studies from India with vaccines not authorized for use in the United States have noted relatively high viral loads and larger cluster sizes associated with infections with Delta, regardless of vaccination status.” The CDC also says that, “unpublished data are consistent with this,” which . . . is not really a triumph for openness and clarity in public-health policy.
And then there was this curious statement to STAT News Tuesday:
An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told STAT that health experts do not have studies proving that fully vaccinated people are transmitting the virus. Rather, the official said, the updated guidance is based on studies showing that vaccinated people who contract the Delta variant have similarly high levels of virus in their airways, which suggested that they may be infectious to others. With other variants, vaccinated people had substantially lower levels of virus in their noses and throats compared to unvaccinated people.
Whatever Biden thinks is the right approach to the Delta variant — and remember, he turns 79 in November, and hasn’t released a health report to the public since December 2019 — the country is full of federal, state and local officials, media voices, and medical talking heads who see the Delta variant as a reason to revert to March 12, 2020. No government official in a deep-blue state, county, or locality wants to be accused of underreacting to a rise in cases.
Then again, some of these deep-blue localities have surprisingly “meh” vaccination rates.
Montgomery County, Md., is contemplating reinstating social-distancing requirements and capacity limits for businesses. More than 69 percent of residents have received one dose, 63 percent are fully vaccinated.
Alexandria, Va., is urging people to wear masks indoors; the city is only 58 percent fully vaccinated, with 67 percent having one shot. It’s a similar story in Washington, D.C., where the district’s health director declared earlier this week, “Wearing a mask in indoor public settings provides an additional layer of protection for those who are fully vaccinated — and continues to be one of the key ways to protect those who cannot be vaccinated, namely young children.” Only 53 percent of D.C. residents are fully vaccinated, and 62 percent are partially vaccinated.
As I’ve been emphasizing all week, if you envision the unvaccinated as a pickup-truck-driving, MAGA-hat-wearing, rural older white male, you’re not getting the full picture.
And guess which big organizations just came out in opposition to vaccination requirements for their members?
So far, the nation’s two largest education unions, The National Education Association and the AFT, have declined to call for vaccine mandates. Instead, the NEA says that teachers should be given the option of weekly testing, while the AFT says it should be decided in contract negotiations between the workers and the company.
Oh, really? Who’s the paranoid anti-science anti-vaxxer now?
Jay Caruso made this point before I could: You cannot work yourself into a frenzy denouncing unvaccinated rural Americans and Trump voters as a bunch of ignorant, tin-foil-hat-wearing lunatics who are extending the pandemic and the suffering it has caused for everyone and then shrug when a bunch of teachers refuse to get vaccinated. The fact that these unions — powerful allies of the Democratic Party — are going to get little to no grief for their position that their members don’t need to get vaccinated if they don’t want to reveal that the vast majority of pro-vaccination rhetoric is really just political tribalism, dressed up in the rhetoric of public health.
ADDENDUM: A good line from Kevin Williamson: “People who are high achievers in one field mistakenly believe that they possess a kind of generalized cleverness applicable to other areas of endeavor — call it Krugman’s Fallacy.”There is so much there, but let me requote his citation of STAT News Tuesday:
An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told STAT that health experts do not have studies proving that fully vaccinated people are transmitting the virus.Last night I spent a fair amount of time trying to find the scientific references on which the CDC based its about-face mask guidance. They have not provided it. THAT is a problem. Especially in light of the earlier "noble lie" article I shared. Trust but verify. Too bad, game over. No credibility left. I'm beyond angry. There may be some other raw credible data to justify this, according to some sources I am inclined to trust. But it hasn't been brought forward, and it sounds rather anecdotal and counterintuitive. (Not scientifically collected or peer reviewed). The plural of anecdote continues not to be data. This is not science, it's science theater. That's not how any of this is supposed to work.
Maybe I'll follow up share the dismal percentage of New York City employees that are vaccinated, perhaps why the Mayor is bring the big hammer of mandatory vaccinations. Surprised again that so many MAGA types work in NY
government. Maybe Jussie Smollett didn't perpetrate a hoax in downtown Chicago at 1am after all.