Dr. Marty Makary on Tuesday accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of “cherry-picking” data and manipulating public health guidance surrounding vaccines and natural immunity to support a political narrative.
Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy at the Johns Hopkins University and Fox News medical contributor, joined the “Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” to discuss the clinical impact of natural immunity as it compares to the vaccine.
DR MAKARY, I HAVE MEDICAL CONCERNS WITH BIDEN’S NEW VACCINE MANDATE
Travis noted that the CDC’s guidance on COVID-19 is inconsistent with their vaccine recommendations for other contagious viruses. The current guidance for the Chickenpox, for example, does not encourage those who have contracted it to vaccinate themselves against the virus.
“CDC recommends two doses of chickenpox vaccine for children, adolescents, and adults who have never had chickenpox,” the official website reads.
“So why doesn’t CDC say the same thing about those of us who already had COVID?” Travis asked.
Makary called the conflicting guidance “absolutely illogical,” and accused the agency of “ignoring natural immunity.
“It doesn’t make sense with what they’re putting out on Chickenpox,” he said. “It’s like they have adopted the immune system to the Democrat Party for one virus, but not for another virus.”
“They cherry-pick the data to support whatever they’ve already decided,” he continued. “They salami slice it, something we call fishing in statistical techniques. That is when you look for a tiny sliver of data that supports what you already believe.”
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was asked during a Fox News Q&A session earlier this month whether parents should deliberately expose their children to COVID-19 “to give them a natural immunity, like we do with the Chickenpox in our home.”
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Murthy said that while it is a “reasonable question to ask,” he encourages parents to vaccinate their children as there can be “other complications” that arise from contracting the virus.
“The significant thing is for us to weigh risks and benefits here,” he said. “When we do that, we see that getting vaccinated is actually a much lower risk and higher benefit proposition than allowing our kids to get COVID and run the risk of having complications.”