Time For Candor From Federal Public Health Officials

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Growing up in the 50's, I remember the terror regarding polio. My mother would not let us go to the swimming pool because "children who went to public pools got polio." We wanted to go because it was so hot and we had no air conditioning. Turned out, my mother and the others were right. Polio was overwhelmingly spread through minute amounts of oral fecal transmission. 

Once we got our polio shots (2), we were good to go. We were immune from polio. No one said, don't go back to swimming pools. Once vaccinated, no one got the disease, not even a mild case.

The above is background for my comments pertaining to the CDC's latest announcement. 
Federal officials have been acting more oddly than usual over the last ten days. For example, this photo of Dr. Jill Biden greeting American Olympic athletes in Tokyo. They are, 1) outdoors, 2) everyone in the photo is vaccinated, 3) there are no spectators in the stands; and yet, Mrs. Biden is masked. The photo virtually shouts, "I have no faith in the vaccines."

Then, take a look at the lead paragraph from this July 5 story I initially missed in the Wall Street Journal:
Almost half of the deaths have been among vaccinated people?! What?! If that is true, something is terribly wrong with one or more of the vaccines. Especially after we were assured the vaccines "are effective."

Among people who had the Salk vaccine, zero people who had been vaccinated died. Literally, zero. 

I compare the COVID vaccines to the polio vaccine because Dr. Fauci, keeps doing so.
If it is true that "half" of the people dying are vaccinated, then Dr. Fauci's comparison to the polio vaccine is completely invalid. This is especially since just last month Fauci and the director of the CDC were telling those of us who were vaccinated we didn't need to wear masks. Now, just five weeks later, they've flip-flopped again? 

I'm saying the following because I believe it is still true, to the best of my knowledge:
Unless Your Physician Says Otherwise, Adults Should Get Vaccinated 
And, yes, I and all of the adults in my family are vaccinated. 

But, the constant mocking of the unvaccinated is getting us nowhere. Their position is logical: when the vaccinated First Lady wears a mask in a situation where there should be no risk, it is easy for people to surmise, "she must not have faith in her vaccine." If the vaccines work as advertised, "half" of the people dying wouldn't be vaccinated. 

Right now, we can't even get consistent guidance on masks. 
Below is a July 1 headline pertaining to a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that was retracted just two weeks later. If it was indeed incorrect, how did it get through peer-review?
Public health officials' credibility is shot. For ordinary Americans, this has morphed into a confusing situation where we don't know what, or whom, to believe. People are dying and this cannot go on. 

Rather than telling people they are "not...smart," if I were President Biden, I would do the following:
  • Dismiss Dr. Fauci as his credibility is shot. This is especially true since he evidently funded 'research' that might have helped to get us in this mess. 
  • Find a small team of experts: practicing physicians, epidemiologists, public health. I'm talking about 4-5 of the least political and most expert people he can find. If there is a problem with one or more of the vaccines (I'm not saying there is) or we need a different strategy, fine. As a great boss of mine once said, "facts are friendly!"
  • Have one, non-political, spokesperson for this team announce the results. 
  • The findings, whatever they might be, should be conveyed in a humble, "this is the current state of our knowledge" way without any mocking of anyone. 
  • Booster shots? Okay, if we must. Cross vaccination (i.e., people who got the Pfizer shots, should get a booster of Moderna, whatever)? Fine. Whatever is best to get this under control as best we can with the, perhaps limited, knowledge that we have. 
President Reagan formed a group to go around the federal bureaucracy to help him formulate policy pertaining to the Soviet Union. It was extremely successful. I believe it is time for President Biden to do the same. 

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