Official who laughs about lockdowns prepares to head CDC
A public health official who advocated for penalizing Americans who do not follow public health guidance is preparing to assume leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) next week.
Dr. Mandy Cohen was tapped by the White House last month to replace Dr. Rochelle Walensky as CDC director, whose term ends June 30th. Cohen most recently served as North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, a position she held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As HHS secretary, Cohen recommended lockdowns, forced masking and coerced vaccinations, though her recommendations were sometimes based on a whim.
Despite the ravaging fallout from lockdowns, Cohen laughed as she explained in a video last year how she had simply copied her Massachusetts counterpart.
“When she was like, ‘Are you going to let them have professional football? And I was like, ‘Nope.’ And she was like, ‘Ok neither are we, neither are we,’” Cohen said, laughing. “So it was conversations like that. Or I’d be like, ‘So when are you going to think about lightening up on that? And they’d be like, ‘Next Monday.’ And I’d be like, ‘next Monday.’”
Other decisions by Cohen also appeared arbitrary. In July 2021 the former Doctors for Obama member stated, “Schools with students in K-8th grade should require all children and staff to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Schools with students in 9th-12th grades should ensure that anyone who isn’t fully vaccinated, including students, wear a mask indoors.”
When the Union County School District did not follow her instructions to isolate unvaccinated and unmasked children, Cohen threatened school officials with legal action.
In 2020 Cohen suggested that local authorities begin imposing “civil penalties” on residents who do not follow health guidance, in addition to the criminal penalties allowed for in Governor Roy Cooper’s executive order.
“We also said, look, there are local authorities they have what we don’t have at the state level that they could consider employing here. Some of them include things like giving themselves authority to impose civil penalties as opposed to criminal penalties for violations of the executive order,” said Cohen.
The White House’s decision last month to nominate Cohen drew heavy criticism from Republican lawmakers.
“Dr. Cohen is unfit for the position,” wrote 28 Republican senators in a letter to Biden last month. “Throughout her career, Dr. Cohen has politicized science, disregarded civil liberties, and spread misinformation about the efficacy and necessity of COVID vaccinations and the necessity of masks, during her time as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. She also has a history of engaging in partisan leftwing politics.”
The senators also noted in the letter that Cohen proudly wore a facemask emblazoned with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s face.
Cohen will assume the CDC directorship on Sunday.
