On Sunday’s Inside Politics with Abby Phillip, host Abby Phillip collaborated with former president of Planned Parenthood, former Baltimore health commissioner, and medical analyst Leana Wen to fearmonger about schools reopening. Ignoring all available scientific data, Phillip worried that the CDC’s current guidelines for reopening schools are not stringent enough to allow schools to “actually meet” and Wen proclaimed that “teacher vaccinations are essential if we want students to be in school for in-person learning.”
Phillip began the segment by uncritically playing a clip where President Biden lied about American having “no plan to vaccinate most of the country” before he took office.
The media mocked Donald Trump for saying that we would even have a vaccine by the end of 2020 so it's ironic that the media is still trashing the former president’s vaccine rollout plan.
Phillip combined with Wen, who is the former head of Planned Parenthood, a fact that CNN bizarrely hides whenever she comes on air, to scaremonger about the new variants of COVID. Wen even admitted that lockdowns have not been successful, but advocated for them anyways:
PHILLIP: We're also hearing that these more contagious variants may also be more lethal and spreading fast in the U.S. Can we actually stay ahead of that trend?
WEN: I'm also very worried about these variants because we have seen in other countries what happens when there is explosive spread of these more contagious variants that despite lockdowns there has been overwhelmed hospitals and other surges that we have actually seen before, but it could happen here again. And so, I think it's really critical for us to ramp up vaccinations as much as we can and in the meantime do our best to continue with masking, physical distancing, these other measures that we know to be really important in controlling the spread of infection.
Wen should listen to the science and mention the negative health effects of lockdowns, which have caused millions of people to miss out on cancer screening and treatment, 130 million people to be on the brink of starvation worldwide, 1.2 million preventable child deaths, 93,000 excess deaths due to missed medical care, and 75,000 extra deaths of despair. She also seems to have missed that Anthony Fauci has said that the vaccine works on the new variants.
Phillip and Wen continued to completely ignore the science by claiming that the CDC’s plan to open schools is not sufficient:
PHILLIP: But not on that list is universal vaccinations for teachers and staff or regular required testing. You know, Dr. Wen, you’ve weighed in on this issue and have some pretty specific criticisms for what is missing in the guidelines, but there's also this element of it that is about the transmission rates. Where do you think the guidelines are right now in terms of whether they have put enough out there that schools can actually meet it or do you think that they have kind of lowered the bar here for what schools need to do to get reopened as quickly as possible?
WEN: So I think that the guidelines are good and problematic at the same time. Where it's good is specifically defining what are the levels of transmission at which different mitigation measures need to be put in place. That kind of specific guidance is really important for schools and I think it's time for us to have a national strategy. So I think that part is good. Where it, I think, has some concerns for me is, first of all, in areas of low and moderate transmission. The CDC is not requiring six feet distance which is very concerning.
Never mind many studies have stated that we can reopen schools safely and that the schools that have reopened have done so safely. Wen also seems to have ignored that 172 studies from 16 different countries have found that “six of feet distancing” is not needed for children in school.
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Read the full February 14th transcript here:
Inside Politics with Abby Phillip
2/14/21
8:49:55 AM
ABBY PHILLIP: Good news this week on the fight against COVID-19. Daily new cases keep falling. They are now at the lowest level since October and deaths are finally falling too. The vaccinations are picking up and we're averaging more than 1.6 million shots a day and 11% of the country has received at least one dose, but there is still not enough vaccine for everyone who wants it. But the Biden administration announced on Thursday that his administration has bought enough doses to cover all adults in the U.S by July.
(Cuts to video)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: When I became president three weeks ago America had no plan to vaccinate most of the country. It was a big mess. We have now purchased enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all Americans and now we're working to get those vaccines into the arms of millions of people.
(Cuts to live)
PHILLIP: That last part is the part that may be the hardest, turning the vaccines into actual vaccinations. And joining us now Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore health commissioner and a CNN medical analyst. Dr. Wen, thanks for being here this morning. So we've got some good news here, more vaccines are coming, but we're also hearing that these more contagious variants may also be more lethal and spreading fast in the U.S. Can we actually stay ahead of that trend?
LEANA WEN (FORMER BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER; FORMER PRESIDENT OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD; CNN MEDICAL ANALYST): I really hope so, Abby, and I think we're at a crossroads here because on the one hand we're seeing as you mentioned declining numbers of infections and hospitalizations and we're getting the vaccines to be rolled out more rapidly. That's great, but I'm also very worried about these variants because we have seen in other countries what happens when there is explosive spread of these more contagious variants that despite lockdowns there has been overwhelmed hospitals and other surges that we have actually seen before, but it could happen here again. And so, I think it's really critical for us to ramp up vaccinations as much as we can and in the meantime do our best to continue with masking, physical distancing, these other measures that we know to be really important in controlling the spread of infection.
PHILLIP: And ultimately the goal here is getting to herd immunity at some point. According to a Washington Post analysis, if we stay at the current pace that we’re at, which is about 1.5 million shots a day, we’re not going to get to herd immunity until at least the end of this year, but if we double that rate we can get there by July. Do you think that that is doable, 3 million shots a day by July 10th according to this analysis?
WEN: Look, we need to ramp up vaccinations a lot more than they currently are and we can think about it as three different bottlenecks, one is supply, the second is distribution, and the third is acceptance. Right now the demand for the vaccine far outstrips supply and so we really need to be working on the supply aspect and we need to work on getting as many vaccination sites as possible. So can we get to three million by July? I -- I hope so, but I also think that the Biden administration needs to set their target much higher, setting the target at 100 million in 100 days, we have already surpassed this. We now need to see what the goal should be and I believe that that goal should be three million a day.
PHILLIP: Yeah. You know, one of the other parallel things the Biden administration is working on of course is the issue of schools and -- and they're not separate by any means. They released these long-awaited guidelines from the CDC about how schools can reopen, they're saying that if you require mask wearing, physical distancing, encouraging frequent hand washing, and improving ventilation and performing contact tracing in schools and isolation of any positive cases, you can get to open schools, but not on that list is universal vaccinations for teachers and staff or regular required testing. You know, Dr. Wen, you’ve weighed in on this issue and have some pretty specific criticisms for what is missing in the guidelines, but there's also this element of it that is about the transmission rates. Where do you think the guidelines are right now in terms of whether they have put enough out there that -- that schools can actually meet it or do you think that they have kind of lowered the bar here for what schools need to do to get reopened as quickly as possible?
WEN: So I think that the guidelines are good and problematic at the same time. Where it's good is specifically defining what are the levels of transmission at which different mitigation measures need to be put in place. That kind of specific guidance is really important for schools and I think it's time for us to have a national strategy. So I think that part is good. Where it, I think, has some concerns for me is, first of all, in areas of low and moderate transmission. The CDC is not requiring six feet distance which is very concerning. The other part, you mentioned ventilation, actually the CDC guidance says very little about ventilation beyond try to open doors and windows and I just worry that the reason why you don't see distancing and ventilation as requirements is more based on expediency than actually based on science and -- and health. And the final part about teacher vaccinations, I don't really understand why we're even having a debate about this. Of course teacher vaccinations are essential if we want students to be in school for in-person learning, the least that we can do is to protect the health and well-being of our teachers, especially as in so many parts of the country teachers are already being made to go back to school in poorly-ventilated, cramped areas with many students who may not always be masking and practicing physical distancing. Why are we even arguing about whether teacher vaccinations should be required?
