CDC downplayed COVID vaccine efficacy concerns, newly released emails show

WASHINGTON — Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discussed how to downplay concerns about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and avoid “too precise” comparisons between the benefits of the jab and natural immunity, according to explosive emails obtained by The Post Tuesday.

The messages reveal agency leaders frequently met to discuss public relations strategies that failed to communicate full information about the safety and efficacy of vaccines combatting SARS-CoV-2.

In a Sept. 22, 2023, email, members of the agency’s COVID Coordination Unit brainstormed how to make Americans “more easily visualize their relative risk of getting very sick” based on whether they were vaccinated or used other protective measures.

“Don’t want it to be too precise of a visualization such that people can infer an exact risk or protection score,” reads the message from the address “covidtransition@cdc.gov”.

The nearly 600 pages of internal documents were uncovered by the Public Health Reform Alliance pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The disclosures come on the heels of several public reversals by the CDC on public health measures during the pandemic — including the efficacy of masks, whether the virus was airborne, whether natural immunity provided the same protection, or better protection, as vaccination and whether post-jab infections were occurring.

A House Republican panel report released in October found that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the CDC, spent $911 million on a COVID vaccine promotion campaign that misrepresented the effectiveness of masking, vaccines and boosters — and “consistently overstated” the risk of the virus to children.

The emails have also been made public after the high-profile firing of Trump-appointed CDC Director Susan Monarez by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.

The COVID Coordination Unit ultimately produced a graphic indicating that cloth face masks, ventilation, outdoor air, and respirators offered at least some protection from infection.

The visualization aid was developed more than a year and a half after a January 2022 CDC study cited evidence that natural immunity was better at warding off repeated infection than vaccination alone by late 2021.

It marked a shift in the CDC’s approach to handling the pandemic, emphasizing the vaccine’s ability to curb more serious illness rather than prevent infections altogether.

By January 2024, CDC communications professionals were crafting responses to questions about mRNA in the COVID jabs — without answering any of the questions raised in state-level inquiries about the safety and effectiveness of the technology.

At the time, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo cautioned against using mRNA COVID-19 vaccines due to the possibility of small DNA fragments contained in them posing a risk.

“DNA integration poses a unique and elevated risk to human health and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients,” Ladapo said in a Jan 3 statement that year.

“If the risks of DNA integration have not been assessed for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, these vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings.”

In a virtual meeting on Jan. 9, 2024, CDC public relations officials — including Health Information Integrity Team Lead Christopher Voegeli — labeled concerns about the DNA fragments “misinformation.”

“Should people believe online claims that doctors have already verified negative impacts from these DNA fragments in their patients?” a potential question posed to a CDC rep reads.

“In these uncertain times,” an agency-approved response states, “remember misinformation can prey on our fears; let’s focus on facts to keep our communities healthy and informed.”

The meeting did not appear to result in the CDC initiating any further studies — despite an internal chart pointing out that the CDC hadn’t looked into any safety concerns.

“The CDC wasn’t acting like a scientific body. It was operating as a PR arm of the vaccine manufacturers and federal policy agenda,” PHRA Director Martin Hoyt said in a statement

“It reflexively and unprofessionally ignored legitimate safety concerns raised by another public health official, dismissed them without inquiry, and actively worked to prevent the public from knowing the truth. That’s not science. That’s propaganda.”

Under Ladapo, Florida became the first state to not recommend the COVID jabs for healthy children in 2022.

The Trump administration has since made the same recommendation for children and pregnant women.

On Monday, the president suggested that the CDC’s refusal to disclose information about the efficacy of COVID vaccinations had “ripped apart” the agency itself and lost it the trust of the American public.

“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post. “Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree! With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW.”

“I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???” he asked. “They go off to the next ‘hunt’ and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work.”

Reps for the CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.