Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) joined CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday to talk about Dr. Anthony Fauci's Fifth Amendment festival last week and Fauci revealing in his diary that the pandemic restrictions were not based on science.
On Feb. 28, 2020, for example, Fauci wrote, "Masks are not really effective in preventing infection of the public," a seeming contradiction of his public April 3, 2020 statement that, "Everyone should be wearing masks. Masks are an important tool in our public health arsenal."
As for the vaccines, early clinical trials and real-world studies officially showed that initial mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were "remarkably" effective against symptomatic infection and even higher protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death.
The World Health Organization (WHO) now states that research shows they are "moderately" effective at preventing mild illness and outpatient visits, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges that mRNA vaccines are less effective at completely blocking transmission or mild infection from newer variants.
While the vaccines have been documented to cause mild, temporary side effects and severe adverse events, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concludes that global research shows that COVID-19 vaccines are safe. But Fauci privately revealed in his diary that he suffered a pulmonary infarction after receiving the vaccine.
On Sunday, Kennedy told CNN the pandemic response, including the vaccines, was largely ineffective. In the case of COVID-19, he maintains that pre-clinical animal data regarding transmission, early clinical trial data, real-world data regarding upper respiratory reinfection, and studies on all-cause mortality show that.
Bash accused him of causing vaccine hesitancy.
"I see my job as telling the truth, and the truth is that there is study after study after study. It's one of the most studied things out there in science," she said.
"You're repeating it like a parrot," Kennedy responded. "I've actually read the science."
"[Fauci] was lying, and you were punishing people for not trusting the experts, and now you're rolling out the experts again to talk about something that you have no personal knowledge of," the HHS secretary continued.
When Bash said her job is "to talk to people," Kennedy reminded her, "Your job is to tell the truth to the American people."
Podcaster Dan Bongino thinks the exchange says a lot about the trustworthiness of the mainstream media.
"That is one of the most important media interactions you're ever going to see in your lifetime or any other," he stated.
He said the media will pass along any rumor or flat-out lie without a fact check when the information is anti-Trump, anti-conservative or anti-Republican.
"You would think after the Biden cognitive dementia disaster, the Russia hoax disaster, the impeachment hoax, the COVID mask hoax, the vax hoax, these media people would show an ounce of humility," Bongino posed. "But no."
"Let me just say, for the record, that I am not saying that the entire way that the COVID reaction was accurate," Bash told Kennedy toward the end of their conversation. "It was a scary time, and people made mistakes."
CNN told The Hill in a statement following the exchange, "We stand behind Dana, her reporting, and CNN's overall coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Recent Gallup Poll data shows that public trust in the mass media has fallen to a record low of 28%, with roughly 70% of U.S. adults expressing little to no confidence in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fairly and accurately.
