Dr. Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, so he knows a thing or two about coronavirus.
And he was by no means impressed with the latest recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for Americans getting the vaccine. He made clear his contempt for the agency’s latest “absurdly restrictive” guidelines in a Wednesday opener for the Wall Street Journal, “Covid Prescription: Get the Vaccine, Wait a Month, Return to Normal,” in which he noted that although the CDC claims to ‘follow science’, the truth is ‘its advice suggests that it is still paralyzed by fear.’
What did he say?
In the wake of the CDC’s announcement that it is now safe for people who have been fully vaccinated to interfere indoors some other people without masks or social distance – a move that CNN describes as the agency that gives “limited freedoms” to people – but not to travel, Makary said it was just another case of the CDC being late or wrong is when it comes to COVID-19. It fits a pattern, the doctor said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lost much of its credibility during the Covid-19 pandemic by failing or failing to test, mask, vaccinate, and reopen the school. The CDC this week – three months after vaccination began – remained consistent with the pattern, eventually vaccinating people saying they could have normal interactions with other vaccines – but only in very limited circumstances. Given the impressive efficacy of the vaccine, it should be immediately obvious by applying scientific inference and common sense.
Parts of the new guidelines are absurdly restrictive. The CDC, for example, did not withdraw its advice to avoid air travel after vaccination. A year of experience with pre-vaccine has shown that aircraft are not a source of spread. In a study done for the Department of Defense, it was found that commercial aircraft have HEPA filtration and airflow that exceeds the standards of a hospital’s operating room.
Makary added that instead of being afraid to encourage normalcy again, the agency should look at the available data, including that vaccination be reduced 89% to 94% and hospitalization and death occur almost completely, according to a study from Israel.
Complete immunity begins approximately four weeks after the first dose, he adds, making the vaccinated patient ‘essentially bulletproof’. Combine that with wearing a mask indoors ‘a few more weeks or months’, and there is ‘little’ that a vaccinated person should discourage from doing.
Instead, Makary said, the CDC has wasted time and tests and is “ridiculously careful” about the virus while ignoring the dangers posed by the isolation the American people have endured:
On a positive note, the CDC did say that people who are vaccinated without symptoms do not need to be tested. But the obvious recommendation must have come two months ago, before so many tests were wasted on people with high levels of antibodies from vaccination.
In its guidance, the CDC says that the risks of infection in vaccinated can not be completely eliminated. It is true, we do not have conclusive data that guarantees vaccination, reduces the risk to zero. We will never do that. We work in the field of medical discretion. based on the best available data, as practitioners have always done. The CDC emphasizes the incredible success of the vaccines, but is ridiculously cautious about their implications. Public health officials myopically focus on the transmission risk, while ignoring the broader health crisis due to isolation The CDC recognizes “potential” risks of isolation, but does not provide details.
It’s time to release vaccines to restore their relationships and rebuild their lives.
Makary indicated too much caution against the virus, as hospitals stood in the way of having relatives with loved ones while they were suffering and dying, Makary said, calling the separation of families as excessive and cruel. which has focused exceptionally on reducing viral transmission risk, regardless of the harm to human quality. “
The doctor asked the CDC not to repeat its mistakes. Instead of exaggerating the threat to health that crushes the human spirit, he said, it’s time to use ‘common sense’ and tell a month after they got their first shot to tell Americans to ‘ to return to normal ‘.