On August 17, when announcing major changes to its structure and systems in light of a review of its emergency response to the pandemic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky went on record to admit the health agency dropped the ball.
"For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moments, our performance did not reliably meet expectations," she said. "As a long-time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way."
Meanwhile, after hinting over the summer that he planned to leave before the end of President Biden's first term, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the president, announced this week that he will officially leave his federal position in December.
Regardless, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford Medical School says government officials who refused to budge on issues have already done their damage.
"Millions and millions of people around the world are dead who would otherwise not have been," Dr. Bhattacharya recently told the "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins" radio program. "I think the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of children have been harmed in ways that they will pay the cost for the rest of their lives."
He also mentioned that a number of businesses did not survive the shutdowns and mandates, and through it all, the nation still saw "an incredible spread of COVID everywhere."
"It was the single biggest health disaster of all time," Dr. Bhattacharya declared.
Dr. Bhattacharya is and an organizer of the Great Barrington Declaration, which was written with concerns for the public, fellow scientists, and government officials from a global public health and humanitarian perspective with special concerns about how the current COVID-19 strategies are forcing children, the working class, and the poor to carry the heaviest burden.
He is among the infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists who have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies.
