Last Updated on May 14, 2021
When pressed by Sen. Richard Burr about the percentage of CDC and FDA employees who have elected to receive the COVID vaccine, Biden medical adviser Anthony Fauci and the FDA’s Peter Marks admitted that the number who have chosen not take the vaccine is close to half. CDC director Rochelle Walensky dodged the question.
“Okay, this question I’m gonna go to Dr. Fauci, Dr. Marks, and Dr. Walensky,” Burr said. “What percentage of employees in [Fauci’s] institute, [Walensky’s] Center, or [Mars’] agency, of your employees, has been vaccinated.”
“You know, I’m not a hundred percent sure, senator, but I think it’s probably a little bit more than half, probably around sixty percent,” Fauci said.
“I can’t tell you the exact number, but it’s probably in the same range, some people vaccinated at our facility, and others at, uh, outside of the facility,” Marks said.
When the same question was posed to Walensky, she replied, “We’re encouraging, um, our employees to get vaccinated, we’ve been doing town halls and education seminars, um, we have, our staff have the option to report their vaccination status but it’s you, un-understand [sic] the federal government is not requiring it so we do not know.”
Senator Burr asked Fauci, Peter Marks from the FDA, and @CDCDirector what percentage of their own employees are vaccinated.
Fauci probably a bit more than half, around 60%.
Marks said about the same.
Walensky dodged the question. pic.twitter.com/zoeZXZeCWM
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) May 14, 2021
Skepticism about the Covid vaccines in the medical sector is not limited to the United States. Earlier this, the Norwegian Institute of Public health recommended that the government stop using the Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, citing side effects:
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health advised the country’s government to avoid the use of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Covid vaccines, citing serious side effects such as blood clots that have taken the lives of multiple Norwegians.
“We do not recommend that the vaccines be used in the national vaccination program due to the serious side effects that have been seen,” NIPH investigation committee chair Lars Vorland said during a press conference on Monday.
“Our goal is to protect as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, to reopen society and get everyday life back,” the NIPH said in a statement. “It is therefore a difficult decision to recommend that one of the Covid vaccines not be used actively in the program.”
The NIPH added, “There is great uncertainty about the occurrence of the serious but rare side effects of using the Janssen vaccine. After vaccination with the similar AstraZeneca vaccine, Norway has registered a higher incidence of the serious side effects and deaths after the first dose compared with other countries, without us yet knowing why.”