{"id":1717253,"date":"2022-10-30T06:04:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T10:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1717253"},"modified":"2022-10-30T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T15:19:24","slug":"cdc-officials-told-they-spread-misinformation-but-still-didnt-issue-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cdc-officials-told-they-spread-misinformation-but-still-didnt-issue-correction\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC Officials Told They Spread Misinformation but Still Didn\u2019t Issue Correction"},"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\">22<\/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%2Fcdc-officials-told-they-spread-misinformation-but-still-didnt-issue-correction%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=1717253&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>U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC) officials were alerted that they spread misinformation about child <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-covid-19\">COVID-19<\/a> deaths but still did not issue corrections, according to emails obtained by The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>Drs. Katherine Fleming-Dutra and Sara Oliver were told within days of presenting to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory panel, in June that statistics from a preprint study they shared were wrong, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23226912-cdc-emails-on-child-covid-19-deaths\">the emails show<\/a>. But after internal discussion about how to respond, neither the CDC nor the officials corrected the false information.<\/p>\n<p>Fleming-Dutra and Oliver both referenced the study, which has not been peer reviewed, while the CDC\u2019s advisers weighed whether to recommend the agency grant emergency authorization for COVID-19 vaccines for babies and toddlers.<\/p>\n<p>The committee ultimately recommended the CDC authorize Pfizer and Moderna shots for children as young as 6 months of age and the CDC quickly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/cdc-advisers-back-covid-19-vaccines-for-young-children_4542313.html\">accepted the recommendation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A week later, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/cdc-director-offers-misinformation-in-promoting-covid-19-vaccination-for-children_4555777.html\">appeared to cite the false statistics<\/a> while urging parents to get their children vaccinated, despite no evidence the vaccines protect against severe illness and despite the clinical trials returning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/health\/moderna-trial-results-not-strong-enough-to-warrant-emergency-authorization-for-children-experts_4375665.html\">substandard<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/health\/efficacy-estimates-for-pfizers-vaccine-for-young-children-come-under-microscope_4541520.html\">unreliable<\/a> results for shielding against infection.<\/p>\n<p>Kelley Krohnert, a citizen researcher and mother who flagged the preprint, triggered the internal discussions among CDC officials, according to the emails. When Krohnert pointed Fleming-Dutra to a blog post that detailed the issues with the study, Fleming-Dutra sent the email to others, including Oliver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not sure who this should go through. Let me know what I need to do,\u201d Fleming-Dutra said.<\/p>\n<p>Megan Freedman, a CDC health communications specialist, looped in a CDC spokeswoman, and they informed Fleming-Dutra that she and other subject matter experts \u201cwould need to determine if there\u2019s any validity to the complaint.\u201d If the complaint was deemed valid, possible next steps might include pulling the slide or adding a footnote, Freedman said.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver jumped in, saying that Krohnert \u201cappears [redacted], but there are my thoughts.\u201d Her thoughts were redacted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure you guys can make it sound prettier, but something like this would be how I would respond,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cAnd the general sentiment that \u2018even 1 death from COVID that\u2019s preventable is too many, regardless of how you count them.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no evidence any of the COVID-19 vaccines prevent death for small children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLove it \u2013 thank you for sending!!!\u201d Freedman said.<\/p>\n<h2>Separate Exchanges<\/h2>\n<p>A separate thread started after the Washington Post forwarded Krohnert\u2019s email over a Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2022\/06\/18\/cdc-coronavirus-vaccine-young-children\/\">article<\/a> that said COVID-19 is \u201ca leading cause of death\u201d among children. The article still links to Fleming-Dutra\u2019s slide, which in turn referenced the preprint.<\/p>\n<p>Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokesperson, sent the email to Fleming-Dutra, who forwarded it to Oliver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKristen: [redacted]. Hope that helps?\u201d Oliver replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks Sara! [redacted]. And really, I think the bottom line (which lots of ACIP members said today) is any death in a child (regardless of where it ranks on a list) is one too many,\u201d Nordlund replied.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, health officer in Washington state\u2019s Seattle and King counties, sent a link to Krohnert\u2019s blog post to Oliver, Fleming-Dutra, and two CDC advisers, Drs. Matthew Daley\u2014who also shared the misinformation\u2014and Grace Lee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat work today, as always. No doubt you\u2019ve seen this and similar critiques of the mortality data presented. Will there be a response from CDC?\u201d Duchin asked.<\/p>\n<h2>Correction<\/h2>\n<p>Seth Flaxman,\u00a0a professor in Oxford University\u2019s Department of Computer Science, and other researchers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/authors-correct-study-that-inflated-child-covid-19-deaths-after-cdc-officials-promoted-it_4578012.html\">corrected the preprint<\/a> after Krohnert flagged the issues to them. Their paper relied on death certificate statistics from the CDC. They initially said at least 1,433 deaths among people 19 and younger in the United States were attributed to COVID-19, but acknowledged in the updated version that the number was just 1,088.<\/p>\n<p>The initial version \u201cincorrectly used\u201d the death certificate data, the authors said.<\/p>\n<p>That sent the rank of COVID-19 among causes of death for children down. For infants under 1, for instance, it went from fifth to eighth.<\/p>\n<p>Months later,\u00a0Fleming-Dutra\u2019s slide remains uncorrected, and nobody at the CDC has ever publicly acknowledged sharing the misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>Fleming-Dutra, Oliver, Freedman, Nordlund, Daley, and the CDC did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Duchin\u2019s agency told The Epoch Times via email that the CDC replied to him in June.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC \u201cnoted that the ACIP considers a multitude of data points in making their recommendations, so even if this specific pre-print paper was removed from consideration, the data overwhelmingly support COVID-19 as a cause of serious disease and death in young children, and COVID vaccines as an important way to prevent this,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThese ACIP decisions are made after reviewing the totality of the data and it is never one singular data point or analysis used.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for\u00a0the Stanford University School of Medicine, which employs Lee, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Lee promoted the false statistics during a meeting in September, and the official webpage for the committee she heads <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vaccines\/acip\/recs\/grade\/covid-19-moderna-pfizer-children-vaccine-etr.html\">still lists the uncorrected figures<\/a>. A spokesperson for the panel did not return an inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Very Strange\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The confirmation that the CDC officials were made aware of spreading misinformation but did nothing is \u201csuper frustrating,\u201d Krohnert said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had all this internal discussion about the criticism and still the CDC director gets on TV and spouts the same criticized data,\u201d she told The Epoch Times. \u201cAnd at that point, Flaxman even said he was going to be updating their report.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>None of the CDC officials have ever replied to Krohnert.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis from the British researchers utilized CDC data. It took Krohnert under an hour to run the same numbers. The Epoch Times also examined the data on the CDC\u2019s site, corroborating Krohnert\u2019s analysis.\u00a0It\u2019s unclear why the CDC scientists didn\u2019t do the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t understand why they don\u2019t seem to know how to use their own resources,\u201d Krohnert said. \u201cIt\u2019s very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-zachary-stieber\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_ZacharyStieber-1.jpg\" alt=\"Zachary Stieber\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news for The Epoch Times. He is based in Maryland.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials were alerted that they spread misinformation about child COVID-19 deaths but still did not issue corrections, according to emails obtained by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1717253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717253","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=1717253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}