While We’re On The Subject Of Defunding Federal Agencies, Don’t Forget The CDC

Shawn FleetwoodAugust 16, 2022

Following years of bureaucratic malfeasance in the name of science, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its Covid guidelines on Thursday to now recommend and acknowledge long overdue truths regarding transmission of the respiratory virus and Covid vaccines.

Among the new provisions included in the guidelines are recommendations to largely end mass asymptomatic testing of individuals with no known exposure to the virus, as well as calls for those “exposed to COVID-19” to wear a “mask for 10 days and get tested on day 5” rather than quarantine.

Most noteworthy in the CDC’s new guidelines, however, is the tacit admission by the agency that any individual, regardless of vaccination status, can still get and spread Covid.

“Reiterating that regardless of vaccination status, you should isolate from others when you have COVID-19,” the guidelines read. “You should also isolate if you are sick and suspect that you have COVID-19 but do not yet have test results.”

In other words, the health agency has essentially deemed all Covid testing and quarantine rules to be the same for both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, an epidemiologist and professor at Stanford’s School of Medicine, took to Twitter to respond to the CDC’s new guidelines, saying that the ending of “mass asymptomatic testing is a big deal, though it comes a full 2 years too late.”

“If your child is going on a field trip and has no symptoms and is forced to test, make sure to let the authorities know that they are violating CDC guidelines,” he said.

Bhattacharya and fellow epidemiologists and medical professors Dr. Martin Kulldorff and Dr. Sunetra Gupta, who were all smeared as science deniers and purveyors of disinformation, are most notable for authoring The Great Barrington Declaration, a document co-signed by dozens of medical professionals in 2020 that called for an end to the Covid lockdowns that produced “devastating effects on short and long-term public health.”

“The results [of the lockdowns] (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health — leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden,” stated the Declaration, which has been vindicated. “The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk.”

The sudden about-face from the CDC, which for two years has relentlessly pushed mass testing, lockdowns, and vaccines as solutions to ending the pandemic, comes on the heels of recent comments by former White House Covid Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, who during an interview on Fox News admitted that she “knew” earlier in the pandemic that the jabs “were not going to protect against infection.”

“I think we overplayed the vaccines, and it made people then worry that it’s not going to protect against severe disease and hospitalization,” she said.

Defund the CDC

The outright lie that the jabs were guaranteed to prevent people from getting infected with Covid was not just pushed by high-ranking CDC officials such as Director Rochelle Walensky as a means to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated. It was also used as justification by President Joe Biden to orchestrate a massive power grab by the federal government. Despite knowing as early as April 2021 that the shots didn’t stop Covid transmission, Biden wildly overstepped his authority in September 2021 by unconstitutionally mandating “private businesses with 100 workers or more” to force their employees to get the Covid jab or face a fine of “$14,000 per violation.”

The order also extended to all federal workers, as well as “employees of federal contractors, and Americans employed by a health-care facility receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding.”

While the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck down Biden’s illegal edict, the point remains: Up until this past Thursday, the CDC and the federal government have falsely maintained that the transmissibility of Covid was different for the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

With such illogical rationale being used by businesses and school districts throughout the country to force Covid vaccines on millions of Americans, it raises the question as to how many citizens lost their jobs and livelihoods as a result of this fictitious “science”? Moreover, how many of the approximately 3,400 U.S. servicemen and women discharged from the military for refusing the jab will be given an apology and have their positions restored given the CDC’s “newly discovered” science?

Given what the CDC has put the country through the past two years with its faulty policies and lack of transparency regarding the potential risks associated with the jabs, the agency should not only be publicly shamed for its conduct; it should be defunded and disbanded. Much like the corruption that has plagued agencies like the FBI, which has repeatedly abused its power to target political opponents, the CDC has shown itself to be a highly inept organization incapable of providing accurate information to the public and keeping politics out of its decision-making processes.

Whether it’s lying to the public about the efficacy of natural immunity and cloth masks, bowing to the demands of the teachers’ unions on reopening schools, or willfully concealing data from the American public, the CDC has given the country plenty of reasons for why it should be legislatively shattered into a thousand pieces.

Restoring trust in our institutions begins with accountability, and it’s about time the CDC gets its first dose of it.

Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood