Restoring Trust in Public Health: Play It Straight on Vaccines Effectiveness

This is the fourth in an eight-article series on “Restoring Trust in Public Health: Lessons from COVID-19.” Four years of the Biden-Harris administration has left Americans rightly skeptical of public health institutions. This series highlights key findings from several congressional oversight reports, including the final report of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and offers lessons for Congress and the new administration on ways to restore trust in public health.

The Biden-Harris administration often issued recommendations related to the COVID pandemic that turned out to be confusing, false, misleading, or unsupported by scientific evidence. One of the most troubling examples was regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its final report in December detailing the numerous federal failures, including misinformation concerning COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness.

In 2021, the administration persisted in claiming erroneously that the COVID-19 vaccines would prevent viral transmission. In March 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention claimed COVID-19 vaccines were highly effective against infection and transmission, and that vaccinated persons could safely gather without wearing masks or practicing social distancing. Yet, this initial claim went far beyond the terms of the Food and Drug Administration’s December 2020 Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccines that explicitly denied that there was any evidence that they prevented person-to-person transmission.

On Dec.11, 2020, when the Emergency Use Authorization was issued, the FDA explicitly stated that it could not affirm that the vaccines could prevent COVID-19 transmission: “At this time, data are not available to make a determination about how long the vaccine will provide protection, nor is there evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person.”

Nonetheless, on March 8, 2021, the CDC advised the public that fully vaccinated individuals could safely gather indoors with others who were fully vaccinated, without masks or social distancing. The CDC also stated that vaccinated individuals exposed to COVID-19 did not need to isolate or get tested unless they exhibited symptoms.

In July 2021, the administration had to revise its messaging and concede that vaccination in fact did not always prevent infection or transmission.

On Aug. 18, 2021, afterPresident Joe Biden announced booster shots would be released for all adults, top FDA scientists, Dr. Marion Gruber and Dr. Phillip Krause resigned because they believed that there was insufficient data to recommend all adults getting a booster shot eight months after the second shot.

Following witness testimony under oath, the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic reported, “evidence further indicates that the FDA may have allowed politics to interfere with what should have been a dispassionate and scientifically driven regulatory process. Dr. Gruber and Dr. Krause expressed legitimate concerns about the hyper-acceleration of the review of COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots and were ignored.”

Then, going from bad to worse, in September 2021, without scientific evidence that the vaccines would prevent viral transmission, Biden announced the imposition of unprecedented federal vaccine mandates by falsely claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

Childhood Vaccination

Despite evidence that the threat of serious COVID-19 illness, hospitalization or death was infinitesimal for healthy young children, the administration also persisted in promoting vaccinations and boosters for children.

On Jan. 3, 2022, the FDA expanded its Emergency Use Authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to include single booster doses for adolescents aged 12-15 years. Days after, on Jan. 5, 2022, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to extend eligibility for additional vaccination for this age group despite the lack of concrete evidence that boosters would provide meaningful protection against the virus. In fact, the meeting slides acknowledged the uncertainty over the “Impact of booster dose on neutralizing antibody or VE [vaccine effectiveness].”

On May 17, 2022, the FDA extended booster eligibility to children aged 5-11 years. Soon after, on June 18, 2022, CDC recommended COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months to five years.

Remarkably, these policies were being undertaken seemingly insulated from the public health assessments and the more sober policies of America’s European allies. In fact, as the Select Subcommittee notes, Team Biden’s approach rendered the United States a global outlier in pushing Covid vaccines and boosters for children and adolescents.

Ignoring Natural Immunity

The record also shows that federal officials downplayed or ignored natural immunity from a previously acquired Covid-19 infection. In fact, the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic reported that when the Biden vaccine mandates were being implemented, 91 million Americans had already been infected with Covid-19.

This dogma among our top federal public health officials was not in keeping with the traditional understanding of the strength of previous infection as a protection against illness, nor was it compatible with emerging data on the power of natural immunity.

Global research, including major studies published in Italy, Israel and Britain, as well as American studies published by the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and the New England Journal of Medicine proved the strength and durability of natural immunity.

In February 2023, for example, The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, published a major study showing that infection-acquired immunity cut the risk of re-infection by 78 percent after 40 weeks.

Nonetheless, top federal officials apparently ignored its relevance and attempted to suppress dissenting scientists who held otherwise. Meanwhile, Team Biden continued its persistent pursuit of a vaccine mandate.

Playing It Straight on Vaccine Effectiveness

Based on his remarks at his confirmation hearings, the new HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. understands the crucial need for fully transparent and rigorous adherence to science. There is a great opportunity to restore public trust by not only requiring rigorous standards of scientific evidence in authorizing the availability and use of vaccines, but also in embracing full transparency in communicating clearly the scientific benefits, limits, and the risks to the public or certain cohorts of the public.

Ana Sofia Santiago-Russe, a member of the Heritage Young Leaders Program, contributed research for this article.

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