Debate Over Vaccine Mandate Arrives in Dr. Fauci's Backyard
If the mandate is considered a sacrament, then Dr. Antony Fauci might be seen as its patron saint. Fauci’s credibility deficit on anything relating to the coronavirus hardly leaves him in a position to tell anyone what they should do to protect themselves during the pandemic. But as the face of public health, he wields considerable influence.
So there is a sense of poetic justice that a number of the 20,000 doctors, researchers, and lab workers at the National Institutes of Health are skeptical that a mandate is 1) ethical, 2) necessary, and 3) safe.
That’s the NIH we’re talking about — the organization under which Dr. Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases operates. These are the top scientists, biologists, and scientific researchers in the world. And many of them are vaccine mandate skeptics.
Who’s the potato head now?
Matthew Memoli, who runs a clinical studies unit within the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will take the lead in a roundtable next month to discuss the pros and cons of a mandate. Memoli is not anti-vaccine, but like many others, he is against a vaccine mandate. Memoli says he’s not been vaccinated.
Wall Street Journal:
If the mandate is considered a sacrament, then Dr. Antony Fauci might be seen as its patron saint. Fauci’s credibility deficit on anything relating to the coronavirus hardly leaves him in a position to tell anyone what they should do to protect themselves during the pandemic. But as the face of public health, he wields considerable influence.
So there is a sense of poetic justice that a number of the 20,000 doctors, researchers, and lab workers at the National Institutes of Health are skeptical that a mandate is 1) ethical, 2) necessary, and 3) safe.
That’s the NIH we’re talking about — the organization under which Dr. Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases operates. These are the top scientists, biologists, and scientific researchers in the world. And many of them are vaccine mandate skeptics.
Who’s the potato head now?
Matthew Memoli, who runs a clinical studies unit within the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will take the lead in a roundtable next month to discuss the pros and cons of a mandate. Memoli is not anti-vaccine, but like many others, he is against a vaccine mandate. Memoli says he’s not been vaccinated.
Wall Street Journal:
“I think the way we are using the vaccines is wrong,” he said. In a July 30 email to Dr. Fauci and two of his lieutenants, Dr. Memoli called mandated vaccination “extraordinarily problematic.” He says one of Dr. Fauci’s colleagues thanked him for his email. Dr. Fauci and a NIAID spokeswoman declined to comment.
Dr. Memoli said he supports Covid-19 vaccination in high-risk populations including the elderly and obese. But he argues that with existing vaccines, blanket vaccination of people at low risk of severe illness could hamper the development of more-robust immunity gained across a population from infection.