Dr. Marty Makary, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on Tuesday accused government officials of practicing “modern-day McCarthyism” against anyone who suggests young healthy people, especially those who recovered from COVID, don’t need booster shots.
The public health researcher and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told members of the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis some COVID policies have become “too extreme, too rigid and are no longer driven by clinical data.”
Makary zeroed in on natural immunity and COVID booster shots for teens. He criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) rush to push boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds based on lab experiments suggesting boosters raise antibody levels against Omicron.
Vaccine makers announced the results of the experiments without releasing any of the underlying scientific data, Makary said.
“Is this what we’ve come to,” Makary asked? “Pharma tells us what to do and the CDC just falls in line?”
Makary assured committee members he isn’t “anti-vax” — he’s been vaccinated for COVID.
But he’s a strong proponent of acknowledging natural immunity, and not requiring people who have recovered from COVID — especially young people — to get the vaccine.
That viewpoint has made him the target of criticism, Makary said.
“We have a modern-day McCarthyism whenever somebody questions COVID booster shots for kids,” Makary said.
Makary reminded committee members that, despite a combined annual budget of about $58 billion, neither the CDC nor the National Institutes of Health have produced credible studies on natural immunity to COVID — something his research team is undertaking, using private money.
The CDC did publish two studies earlier this year, claiming to show vaccine immunity trumps natural immunity. Those studies were so flawed, in Makary’s opinion, they were “worse than a 7th grade science experiment.”
Makary accused the CDC of knowingly publishing flawed studies so people would get the vaccine, rather than wait to acquire natural immunity by getting and recovering from the virus.
“Many lives are being destroyed” by the government’s failure to recognize natural immunity, Makary said.
Watch Makary’s testimony (starts at 31:56):
