U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra on Sept. 20 defended the Biden administration’s widespread promotion of the new COVID-19 vaccines despite the dearth of data supporting their use.
“These vaccines work,” Mr. Becerra, who isn’t a doctor, said during a briefing at a pharmacy in Washington where he received one of the shots.
Mr. Becerra heads the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an agency of which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are divisions. The FDA recently approved and authorized new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. The CDC then recommended them for nearly all U.S. residents ages 6 months and older.
While officials said that the vaccines will protect against severe illness, they acted without clinical trial efficacy data. Critics say that lack of evidence is undercutting the continuation of the yearslong campaign to get U.S. residents vaccinated and boosted.
Asked by The Epoch Times about the dearth of data on the vaccines, Mr. Becerra defended the government’s position.
“Actually, there’s a lot of data available about the vaccines. There is a lot of data available about the effectiveness of the vaccines. But the best data—the best proof of their effectiveness—is that we’re all standing here alive because we’ve been vaccinated,” he claimed.
Hellbound and Down 