Dr. Leana Wen gave CCN viewers insight last night into why the Left has been demonizing Republicans’ steps back toward freedom amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporate media savaged Georgia Governor Brian Kemp when he opened the economy at the end of May 2020. President Joe Biden called governors in Texas and Mississippi “Neanderthals” for lifting mask mandates a few weeks ago. The Democrats and the corporate media also relentlessly try to make “DeathSantis” a thing.
While Wen spoke, host Chris Cuomo’s face was hysterical. It is almost as if he finally realized the fraud his network has perpetrated on the American people for the last year.
To summarize, Wen said that lockdowns are the stick, and freedom after vaccination is the carrot. There is no other way to interpret this clip. She says,
The vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life. And the window to do that is really narrowing. I mean you were mentioning Chris, about how all these states are reopening. They are reopening at 100% and we have a very narrow window to tie reopening policy to vaccination status.
Feel free to listen for yourself. It is pretty incredible.
Well, this is wild. pic.twitter.com/TO2mWgufN1
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) April 1, 2021
To her credit, Wen criticized the CDC for not telling people that vaccination provides significant protection against COVID-19 and after a person has received it, it is safe for him or her to return to normal activities. Doctor and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has pressured Dr. Anthony Fauci about this very same point. Paul is relentless about hectoring Fauci to explain why recovered patients should be restricted in any way when this would not be the case with any other virus. He cites the immune response that should be assumed in a recovered patient.
Rand Paul Humiliates Dr. Fauci AGAIN Over Double-Masking
Yesterday, Paul was vindicated by new research showing that recovered patients have an effective immune response to COVID-19 variants. The study’s sample was small, and the study still has to be peer-reviewed. Still, it is consistent with at least six studies that demonstrated that some people had a pre-existing immune response to COVID-19 based on exposure to other coronaviruses. Each study found that reactive T-cells neutralize the virus. Immunity involves more than just antibodies, and to date, no one in the public health bureaucracy has talked about this publicly other than Dr. Scott Atlas. For his trouble, he was fact-checked, vilified, and attacked professionally by colleagues at his university.
No one conducted large-scale studies, but the recent study’s finding was consistent with tests globally. The study used a method similar to the CDC’s monitoring of blood specimens through clinical laboratories for the prevalence of antibodies. The CDC uses this information to estimate the population infection rate. Positive tests comprise the case rate. A similar finding occurred during the H1N1 flu pandemic when researchers wanted to understand why some people suffered a less severe illness.
Perhaps during the next pandemic that involves a known family of viruses, our health bureaucracy might want to do large-scale testing of pre-pandemic blood samples for preexisting immune responses. Then doctors can develop an effective test to detect immune responses, called a titer, and make it available so people can assess their personal risk. Doing this could also ensure we never have a model again that is as wrong as the one from the IMHE that locked down the country.
Dr. Wen should be aware of many of these studies. She also has an understanding of immunology. That may be why she doesn’t mention that the window for using restrictions and lockdowns to encourage vaccinations slammed shut months ago in South Dakota, Utah, Georgia, and Florida. Residents in these states were given the freedom to assess their own risk, take precautions as they saw fit, and not relinquish that freedom. The results indicate that citizens returning to pre-pandemic life on their terms is working out pretty well. Here is the data for Georgia:
The fact that Wen put lockdowns and vaccines in the carrot-and-stick frame is telling, even if it appears she was criticizing the CDC for not clearly articulating the benefits of vaccination for those who receive it. It should be a cautionary tale about giving unelected bureaucrats too much power when her thinking is a clear indication that the measures taken to influence citizens’ behavior are drastic enough to ruin people financially and emotionally. As BlazeTV host Steve Deace put it during an interview with Glenn Beck for his new book, A Facuian Bargain, “If they were trying to condition us for something, Glenn, what would they be doing differently?”
Beck’s answer was spot on, “Nothing.” Our ruling class has employed the same tactics Pavlov understood so well, and Dr. Wen inadvertently let us all know what they are thinking.
