Pandemic architect honored with ‘Anthony Fauci’ award
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) last week honored former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky with the Anthony Fauci Courage in Leadership Award.
According to the IDSA, the award is reserved for those who have “demonstrated courage in leadership and a commitment to promoting scientific integrity, advocating for sound science and advancing the field of infectious diseases at their institutions or in their local, national or global communities.”
The organization praised Walensky specifically for “speaking scientific truth.”
“In the face of threats and vilification, Dr. Walensky kept her focus on navigating the nation’s COVID-19 response,” the IDSA says on its website. “By asking hard questions, and speaking scientific truth with integrity and perseverance, she inspires not only her colleagues but rising generations considering careers in infectious diseases and public health.”
Walensky has been widely criticized, however, for her performance as CDC director during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under her stewardship, the CDC appeared to make a massive departure from science with poorly justified policies.
Social distancing
The agency’s recommendation that individuals keep a six-foot distance between them during the "pandemic," for example, was not based on any scientific evidence or data. Anthony Fauci, who served as the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) throughout the pandemic, admitted this to Congress in June.
School closures
The CDC’s decision to close schools was also not based on data but due to pressure from teachers’ unions. Text messages between Walensky and union heads revealed last year that the agency colluded with the unions to keep schools closed during the pandemic.
Forced masking in schools
Union pressure was also the driver behind Walensky’s decision to continue masking children, who were least at risk from COVID-19. Internal emails obtained in 2021 showed that the country’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association (NEA), threatened the CDC with public criticism if the agency did not recommend imposing mask mandates in schools. The CDC subsequently changed its recommendation to match the NEA’s “suggestion.”
Another driver behind the CDC’s recommendation for forced masking in schools was public opinion. On August 10, 2021, Walensky, Fauci, and other top officials received an email from Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). KFF is a dark money organization in Washington, D.C. funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Twitter, Google, Facebook and Poynter, among others. The foundation’s board comprises executives and political operatives, including Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida and former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who was also an Obamacare architect.
In the email, Altman shared select data from a KFF poll which showed that masking children was popular among Democrats and he dismissed opposition to school mask mandates as a “political winner” only among conservatives. Three days later, the CDC recommended universal masking for all children aged two and up.
‘Vaccinated people don’t get sick’
In March 2021, Walensky told the American public, without credible evidence, that the mRNA shots would prevent them from contracting the disease: “We can kind of almost see the end where we’re vaccinating so very fast. Our data from the CDC today suggests, you know, that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick, and it’s not just in the clinical trials but also in real-world data.”
Failure to monitor vaccine side effects
In 2022, the CDC admitted it did not monitor the COVID-19 vaccine’s safety signals as it had promised to do. The agency’s insistence that the shots were “safe” was thus based on the fact that it had not looked for adverse events as it was supposed to.
Deliberately withheld data
In early 2022, a New York Times report revealed that the CDC had withheld crucial data about the COVID-19 booster shot for 18-49-year-olds, the age group least likely to benefit from the booster shot. The agency justified its action by saying that publishing the data would have led the public to believe the shots were ineffective.
Fake child mortality data
The CDC called for children to be injected with the experimental mRNA shots, claiming that COVID-19 had killed nearly 100 children. In response to a FOIA request, however, the agency admitted it had no such data.
Speaking truth?
The IDSA’s decision to honor Walensky for “speaking scientific truth” drew mockery and criticism on social media.
“The Walensky CDC was one of the most disastrous periods in the agency's history,” commented Dr. Kevin Bass.
“Unbelievable the way that you all congratulate each other for causing so much harm to people and medical science,” added Dr. Brad Banko. “Just start calling it the Joseph Mengele award.”
