Walensky’s hypocritical exit from the CDC.
This week, The Wall Street Journal reports that Rochelle Walensky steps down as CDC director and warns the public to be on guard against misinformation and the politicisation of science.
Ironically, this comes after two and a half years of Walensky misinforming the public and politicising the science.
I have documented how Walensky misled Congress on various issues, including covid vaccine effectiveness against viral transmission and on Cochrane’s review of face masks.
Walensky testified that her public statement on MSNBC in March 2021 about how “vaccinated people do not carry the virus, they do not get sick” was accurate. But even today, the FDA states that efficacy against transmission is unproven.
Walensky also said that the summary of Cochrane’s review of face masks had been “retracted.” But it was neither retracted, nor had the authors of the review changed the language in the summary.
A recent, damning study by Krohnert et al, solidifies criticism of the agency. The researchers compiled instances of numerical and statistical errors made by the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After reviewing CDC publications, press releases, interviews, meetings, and Twitter accounts, they found a total of 25 instances where Walensky’s agency promoted demonstrably false numbers and statistical errors.
The majority (80%) of these instances exaggerated the severity of the COVID-19 situation. For example, on Oct 27, 2021, Walensky said “there have been 745 deaths in children less than 18,” but the National Center for Health Statistics showed it was 558 deaths.
At a White House COVID-19 briefing on Jun 23, 2022, Walensky claimed that COVID-19 was a “top 5 cause of death” in children, which was also untrue.
And in Feb this year, Walensky testified before Congress that there had been “2000 paediatric deaths from COVID-19”, when in fact, it was 1400-1500.
In some cases, the errors were not corrected, or the errors were repeated. Notably, the vast majority of errors (94%) made by the CDC pertained to exaggerated COVID-19 risks to children, which the authors say would have influenced the discussion of pandemic policies.
“The CDC’s errors have likely led the public to believe children’s risks are higher than they truly are,” wrote the authors.
“CDC’s guidance repeatedly called for restrictions being placed on children, including school closures, mask mandates, and strong recommendations for vaccinations and multiple boosters even among children who have recovered from the virus,” they added.
Consequently, the authors suggested that the agency responsible for reporting health statistics should be firewalled from the agency setting health policy – something that would avoid biased statistics or the politicisation of the science.
CDC delusion
At the commencement of her tenure at the CDC, Walensky wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times saying she found it “extremely disturbing” hearing reports that White House officials in the Trump administration interfered with official guidance of the CDC.
“I believe in the agency’s mission and commitment to knowledge, statistics and guidance. I will do so by leading with facts, science and integrity and being accountable for them,” wrote Walensky.
But the public has not witnessed any accountability – the opposite in fact. Now that her tenure is over, Walensky remains defiant as she reflects on her time as director.
“We made this world a safer place. I have never been prouder of anything I have done in my professional career,” said Walensky after announcing her resignation.
The Biden administration has since nominated Dr Mandy Cohen, an internal medicine physician and former state health secretary in North Carolina, as the new CDC director to replace Walensky.
But many fear that Cohen will implement more of the same unevidenced, misguided health policies as her predecessor.
Cohen supported forcibly masking children in schools, and promoted cloth masks despite no evidence for their effectiveness at stopping viral spread, which many say, should have been immediately disqualifying for the position.
