{"id":1581878,"date":"2022-08-01T06:47:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T10:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1581878"},"modified":"2022-08-01T06:47:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T10:47:46","slug":"are-covid-politics-causing-a-public-health-brain-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/are-covid-politics-causing-a-public-health-brain-drain\/","title":{"rendered":"Are COVID Politics Causing a Public Health Brain Drain?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fare-covid-politics-causing-a-public-health-brain-drain%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1581878&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Top scientists making quiet exits out of embarrassment about &#8216;bad science&#8217; driving policy have left these agencies without leadership<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Dr. Tracy Beth H\u00f8eg describes herself as \u201cpro-evidence.\u201d Having practiced rehabilitation medicine and holding a PhD in epidemiology and public health, she was conscious of statistics and closely following the public health messaging around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-covid-19\">COVID-19<\/a> since the beginning of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8eg was not against vaccination for high-risk groups and recommended vaccines when they first rolled out for adults. But she questioned vaccination mandates, especially for children who had already been infected. She questioned lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates, and testing of students. She examined studies that measured safety and efficacy data for children\u2014who are at low risk for COVID\u200b\u200b\u2014and found that they contradicted public health policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPost-vax myocarditis was clearly above baseline at the end of May. We are standing on shaky ground if we say the risk to otherwise healthy kids from COVID-19 is higher than it is from the vaccine,\u201d she posted to Twitter on June 10, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Within seconds, Twitter flagged her tweet as \u201cmisleading,\u201d to which H\u00f8eg wrote \u201cI\u2019m quoting the CDC\u2019s [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] own slides.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Post-vax myocarditis was clearly above baseline at the end of May. As previously discussed, we are standing on shaky ground if we say the risk to otherwise healthy kids  from Covid-19 is higher than it is from the vaccine.  <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fSDrlLm61f\">pic.twitter.com\/fSDrlLm61f<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tracy H\u00f8eg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TracyBethHoeg\/status\/1403160097308643334?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has been carefully tracking the health decisions, keen to draw attention to discrepancies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of the decisions that [health authorities] were making\u2026I was just so angry, and I felt like I couldn\u2019t do anything,\u201d H\u00f8eg said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I started doing the research that I did, because someone has to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8eg was far from alone. On July 14, she and co-author Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins professor and public policy researcher, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonsense.news\/p\/us-public-health-agencies-arent-following\">published an article<\/a> about the exodus of top scientists at the CDC, Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), and the National Institute of Health (NIH). It\u2019s rife with anonymous interviews with despairing doctors and silenced scientists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like a horror movie I\u2019m being forced to watch and I can\u2019t close my eyes,\u201d one senior FDA official lamented. \u201cPeople are getting bad advice and we can\u2019t say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another CDC scientist told H\u00f8eg and Makary: \u201cI used to be proud to tell people I work at the CDC. Now, I\u2019m embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reader is left with the impression motivation is all political: \u201cIt\u2019s like a horror movie I\u2019m being forced to watch and I can\u2019t close my eyes,\u201d one senior FDA official lamented. \u201cPeople are getting bad advice and we can\u2019t say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 126 pages of FDA emails obtained by the Judicial Watch, it was revealed that the top FDA officials felt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/top-fda-officials-concerned-about-pressure-to-authorize-covid-19-vaccine-boosters-emails_4630913.html\">pressured by the White House<\/a> and vaccine companies to authorize boosters.<\/p>\n<p>According to the widely read piece by H\u00f8eg and Makary, the scientists are embarrassed because of all the bad science. But they\u2019re silent because of the swift repercussions that come with speaking out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI almost canceled the interview,\u201d H\u00f8eg told The Epoch Times on the phone call, \u201can anonymous person\u2026called my work and was threatening me over voicemail\u2026about my moral transgressions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone in our office has been warned about their associations with me and it makes it very hard for doctors to speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Makary and H\u00f8eg\u2019s study painted a despairing image of scientists choosing to not verbalize arguments that contradicted the main public health agenda, trying to not catch attention so that they could survive to retirement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The health authorities] basically either silence people or push them out until they quit,\u201d H\u00f8eg said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very select group of people that are working there.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Threats, Attacks, and Censorship<\/h2>\n<p>There are many doctors who are in positions that make it hard for them to question health policies, said H\u00f8eg. These doctors may be funded by the NIH or hold positions in universities, and risk losing their jobs from speaking out.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking from her experience, H\u00f8eg believes that the shaming culture on social media is discouraging doctors from speaking out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no room for nuance\u2026as soon as you say something that is slightly nuanced and not 100 percent vaccinate everyone with multiple boosters, you\u2019re labeled as a \u2018[COVID] minimizer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Doctors also have concerns about being labeled political and losing respect, labeled right wing or pro-Trump for speaking against the public health agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there should have been more open discussions,\u201d H\u00f8eg said, \u201cand not this sort of attack via social media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8eg primarily posts on Twitter, and no longer posts to Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been continuously censored by Facebook, to the point where I left because I would just write something and then it would just be erased. I could tell that I was on some sort of list,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were physicians who were against what I was writing, [they] would come write things on my timeline, and I didn\u2019t want family friends to see what I was dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the difficulties she is facing, H\u00f8eg is adamant about continuing to inform the public of more nuanced discussions on COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>However, her online label of \u201cCOVID-19 minimizer\u201d has also followed her into real life.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018COVID Minimizer\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>H\u00f8eg was testifying against California <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1479\">SB 1479 senate bill<\/a> on June 12, 2022. The bill was sponsored by seven democrat senators, of whom, Dr. Richard Pan, a pediatrician, is the author of the bill. If passed, the bill would require schools to run daily COVID-19 tests for students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spoke a lot to the data,\u201d H\u00f8eg said.<\/p>\n<p>At the panel, H\u00f8eg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.01.04.22268770v1.full.pdf\">cited a study<\/a> that found rapid antigen testing would miss COVID-19 positive students in their first three days of transmission. Therefore, when students are tested positive, they may have already transmitted the infection to everyone around them.<\/p>\n<p>Most rapid antigen tests are also inaccurate, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TracyBethHoeg\/status\/1539465523280236544\">Hoeg argued that over 70 percent<\/a> of asymptomatic students that test positive may not have the disease.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpending over a billion dollars per year on COVID-19 school testing program would be a net harm, and it would not achieve its intended goals. This is due to the simple fact that COVID-19 is about 20 times more likely to be spread outside of schools than inside and because rapid tests\u2026are highly inaccurate,\u201d H\u00f8eg said at the panel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have never tested for seasonal respiratory viruses in schools before\u2026COVID now has a lower infection hospitalization risk than influenza for children, and for adults it\u2019s now similar to influenza, so we are at a different stage in the pandemic now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pan responded to H\u00f8eg\u2019s arguments by calling her \u201cCOVID minimizer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I know that one of the witnesses is a well-known COVID minimizer,\u201d he said, \u201cbut COVID is a serious disease in children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8eg said that she wasn\u2019t allowed to talk after that.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#8217;d been looking forward to meeting Senator Pan. I think we both want the best for kids<br \/>Not sure &#8220;minimizer&#8221; applies to someone dedicated to learning the data &#038; considering tradeoffs of continued testing. My take: we should follow Scandinavia&#8217;s lead &#038; drop school covid testing\ud83e\uddf5 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MXsJNjt9jQ\">https:\/\/t.co\/MXsJNjt9jQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tracy H\u00f8eg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TracyBethHoeg\/status\/1539465520180645888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThis is not the way that science should happen. I\u2019m not saying that I\u2019m right about everything,\u201d she said. \u201cRather than people having discussions, ideas are being silenced, and the discussions are not being had, and so we\u2019re just not making progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people who are saying we need to do the maximum\u2026for Covid all the time, every year, for the rest of our lives, [if] they\u2019re the only ones who are allowed to speak, then that\u2019s really problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill has since passed the Senate at 11 to 3 with one abstention, though it is <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1479\">currently suspended<\/a> in the state assembly.<\/p>\n<h2>Medical Associations Join the Narrative<\/h2>\n<p>Governmental bodies were not the only major organizations to play politics with pandemic measures. Organizations providing medical certifications have been vocal participants as well.<\/p>\n<p>For Dr. James A. Thorp, a certified obstetrician-gynecologist of over 40 years, his biggest concern was \u201crolling out an experimental mRNA vaccination without a legitimate randomized controlled prospective trial.\u201d As an accredited member of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG), Thorp has been threatened twice for speaking against COVID-19 vaccinations.<\/p>\n<p>The ABOG released a statement in July 2022, stating that misinformation and disinformation on COVID-19 may cause a loss of \u201celigibility to gain or maintain ABOG certification.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was classic gaslighting,\u201d Thorp wrote to The Epoch Times in a text, \u201cpunishing anyone that questioned their fake science.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Early Treatment<\/h2>\n<p>Thorp condemned the decision to abandon early treatment \u201cdespite ample evidence in every prior disease throughout the history of medicine that early treatment equates to improved outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration condemned generic drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for use in treating COVID-19, despite overwhelming data favoring their uses.<\/p>\n<p>Physicians were also warned against prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19 and many media outlets were quick to condemn the \u201cmisinformation\u201d of ivermectin ($4.70 per pill) and hydroxychloroquine ($1.20 per pill) as COVID-19 treatments.<\/p>\n<p>The attack on generic drugs left no drugs for early treatment.<\/p>\n<p>This created an image that there was no treatment for COVID-19\u2014apart from vaccination\u2014once people were infected, the general advice was to rest and hydrate, and treat their symptoms with analgesics. Hospitalized patients were treated with remdesivir ($390 per vial) if their conditions were serious.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) <a href=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/vt62y6-covid-19-a-second-opinion.html\">observed that<\/a> the treatments that were discouraged by the health authorities were cheap and cost in the $10s and $30s, whereas the drugs that were approved cost in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, implying that financial reasons may be at play.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of immune protection and treatment at the start of the pandemic, led to high death tolls in many high risk demographics. Currently, around 6.4 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Paxlovid ($530 per person) was rolled out in December 2021 as a treatment option during the course of COVID-19, but was soon linked with rebounding COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n<p>Despite multiple attempts at discrediting the safety of ivermectin and other \u201ccontroversial drugs,\u201d Dr. Ben Marble, a Floridian family doctor for over 20 years, started a website (myfreedoctor.com) that would connect COVID-19 patients with a doctor who would prescribe these medications.<\/p>\n<p>The early treatment regimen included ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, monoclonal antibodies, prednisone, budesonide, vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc and placidin.<\/p>\n<p>At Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/vt62y6-covid-19-a-second-opinion.html\">panel discussion on Jan. 25<\/a>, 2022, Marble said that the 150,000 COVID-19 patients they treated had an overall survival rate of 99.99 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe science is conclusive and irrefutable: early treatment of COVID-19 with nutraceuticals, vitamins, and safe repurposed drugs are at least 90 percent (if not 99 percent) successful in treating COVID-19,\u201d\u00a0Thorp wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that myfreedoctor.com; the free volunteer doctor team, we have settled the science on this. Early treatment works, period,\u201d said Marble.<\/p>\n<h2>Eroded Public Trust<\/h2>\n<p>H\u00f8eg lamented that health authorities such as the CDC would not take accountability for their mistakes and apologize.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDenmark has said it was a mistake to vaccinate children under 16. I don\u2019t see that happening here. I think that apologizing or simply admitting uncertainty would do a lot to improve trust in public health authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think\u2026people feel like the CDC is talking down to them, [as] if they don\u2019t get the data or that they\u2019re just not smart enough to understand what\u2019s going on\u2026and I think people very quickly see through that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4542664\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/06\/18\/rochelle-walensky-4-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4542664\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/06\/18\/rochelle-walensky-4-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>She said that the messages in Europe have been \u201cmuch more nuanced,\u201d showing uncertainty and discussion in their statements rather than \u201cpretending like they know things with great certainty when they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe public health agencies in the US have really become politicized and\u2026there is a lot of influence from the pharmaceutical industry. They\u2019re not\u2026independent organizations that stick to the data anymore, they\u2019re politically influenced and they\u2019re saying things to get people to basically do what they want them to do rather than focusing on what the data actually show,\u201d H\u00f8eg said.<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8eg was the senior author <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/70\/wr\/mm7004e3.htm\">in a CDC study<\/a> on school reopenings in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p>The study found that a vast majority of infections in students and teachers actually came from community transmissions rather than in school, with less than 4 percent of infections tracing back to the school.<\/p>\n<p>H\u00f8eg\u2019s study was one of the most cited CDC studies, but after publishing her findings, \u201cthe CDC actually made it more difficult to open schools\u2026it didn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210212190653\/https:\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/downloads\/community\/schools-childcare\/K-12-Operational-Strategy-2021-2-12.pdf?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcommunity%2Fschools-childcare%2Foperation-strategy.html\">In the February 2021<\/a> guidance on school reopenings, the CDC asked for six-feet between students rather than three feet apart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could have asked us, the scientists who did the study; how far apart were the children sitting in the schools where you did your study, but they didn\u2019t have, so we had to publish a pre-print in the hopes they would eventually do away with the arbitrary and unnecessary requirement of 6 feet of distance, that was keeping millions of children either completely out of school or with limited in person hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/05\/01\/teachers-union-collaborated-with-cdc-on-school-reopening-emails\/\">reports by the New York Post<\/a> implied teacher unions were involved in the decisions rather than the scientists, with the unions possibly even framing the wording of the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, H\u00f8eg also had difficulty publishing expanded analysis data on masks in the CDC\u2019s journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).<\/p>\n<p>She and her co-author, Ambarish Chandra, a professor of Economics at the University of Toronto, failed to find a relationship between school mask mandates and pediatric case rates; her study expanded on a study previously published by the CDC which found opposing results with a much smaller dataset. Her larger analysis failed to find a significant relationship between school mask mandates and pediatric cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CDC didn\u2019t say their rejection had anything to do with our methodology, but they said that\u2026they thought we could just use more space to expand upon what we did, which didn\u2019t really make sense. I suspect the results we found simply didn\u2019t fit with the message they are trying to convey and that is now how science should be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/submission-guidelines_4553495.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">our form here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top scientists making quiet exits out of embarrassment about &#8216;bad science&#8217; driving policy have left these agencies without leadershipDr. Tracy Beth H\u00f8eg describes herself as \u201cpro-evidence.\u201d Having practiced rehabilitation medicine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1581878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1581878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1581878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1581878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1581878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}