Fauci Admits During Senate Hearing There’s No Data to Support Boosters for Kids
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief Medical Advisor to the White House admitted Thursday there is no data showing COVID-19 booster shots actually lower the rates of hospitalization or death in children.
During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Fauci if he was aware of any studies that showed a reduction in hospitalizations or death for children who had taken a booster.
“Right now, there’s not enough data that has been accumulated, Senator Paul, to indicate that that’s the case,” Fauci stated.
Fauci said he believed the government’s recommendation is based on an “assumption” regarding the morbidity and mortality of children in different age groups when Paul interjected.
“So there are no studies. And Americans should all know this. There are no studies on children showing a reduction in hospitalization or death with taking a booster,” Paul said.
“The only studies that were permitted. The only studies that were presented were antibody studies. So they say if we give you a booster you make antibodies,” Paul explained. “A lot of scientists would question whether or not that’s proof of efficacy of a vaccine. If I give you 10 or I give a patient 10 mRNA vaccines and they make proteins each time or they make antibodies each time, is that proof we should give ten boosters, Dr. Fauci?”
“No, I think that’s somewhat of an absurd exaggeration,” said Fauci.
“Well, that is the proof that you use,” Paul said. “Your committees use that. That’s the proof that you use. Your committees use that. That’s the only proof you have to tell children to take a booster is that they make antibodies. So it’s not an absurdity. You’re already at like five boosters for people. You’ve had like 2 or 3 boosters. Where is the proof?”
Paul, who is a physician, said there is “probably some indication” that boosters are beneficial for older people with certain risk factors, but this is not the case for younger people.
Paul said there are confirmed risks associated with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for young people, including myocarditis — and this condition is occurring at a higher rate in the vaccinated population.
“So there is risk and there are risks, and you’re telling everybody in America to blindly go out there because we made antibodies.”
The Republican senator also accused the government of withholding data on pediatric COVID-19 cases, such as the number of children who had previously been infected with the virus who later died or were hospitalized from it.
“The answer may be zero, but you’re not even giving us the data,” Paul said.
Fauci did not answer the question but stated the “optimal degree of protection” after infection is to still get vaccinated.
Fauci refuses to answer questions about pharma royalties
During the hearing, Paul questioned Fauci about royalty payments he received from companies he gave money to as NIAID director, the undisclosed royalty payments of 1,800 health officials and asked whether anyone on the CDC and FDA advisory committees received money from the companies whose products they’re regulating.
When asked whether Fauci received royalty payments from companies that he gave money to as NIAID director, Fauci said he was “not sure.”
When asked by Paul whether anyone on the vaccine approval committees “ever received money from the people who make vaccines,” Fauci said “people who receive royalties are not required to divulge them.”
Fauci made a virtual appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, where he testified before lawmakers on the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response.
The NIAID on Wednesday said in a statement that Fauci, 81, tested positive for COVID-19 despite having received four doses, including two boosters, of the vaccine.
During his opening statement at the committee’s hearing, Fauci said current vaccines have maintained their effectiveness for preventing severe COVID-19″ and praised booster shots as having “significantly” reconstituted and enhanced the level of antibodies that neutralized the Omicron variant.”