“Follow the science” became the mantra of pundits, politicians and major news outlets during the COVID pandemic, with countless prominent voices advising the American people to trust the guidance of scientists.
President Biden repeatedly invoked the phrase during the 2020 campaign and throughout his presidency, saying his policies are based on the recommendations of public health experts.
However, key recommendations advanced by the country’s health body and implemented by local, state, and federal governments were later contradicted by studies on these issues.
Here are four main ideas for fighting COVID that subsequent research has undermined:
A researcher works at a laboratory in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, October 12, 2021. (Photo credit should read Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
ANOTHER US AGENCY ASSESSES ORIGINS OF COVID-19 LIKELY A CHINESE ‘LABORATORY LEAK’: REPORT
The lab leak theory is a conspiracy theory
The so-called “lab leak theory,” according to which COVID originated from an accidental lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, has been widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory and “misinformation” by Democrats, major news outlets, scientists, and social media companies in the early stages of the pandemic.
The Department of Energy, undecided about the origin of the pandemic, has now joined the FBI in concluding that the coronavirus likely spread because of a mishap at a Chinese lab.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the change in the Department of Energy’s stance was noted in a classified 2021 intelligence report updated by the Office of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
Information signs are on display at a retail store in Buffalo Grove, Illinois on Thursday, February 10, 2022. (AP Images)
FACE MASKS MAKE ‘LIttle TO NO DIFFERENCE’ IN PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF COVID, SCIENTIFIC REVIEW FINDINGS
Masks are essential to protect yourself and others
In April 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged all Americans, even children ages two and older, to wear masks to protect themselves and others from COVID. In September of that year, then-CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield during a Senate hearing that “face masks are the most important effective health tool we have”. Dozens of states eventually enacted mask mandates.
As recently as August, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was “inexplicable” that some Americans view mandatory mask-wearing as a violation of their freedom.
But it was all for naught, according to a new study. The review, published by the prestigious Cochrane Library and funded by the National Institutes of Health, examined the results of 78 randomized controlled trials to determine whether “physical interventions” — including face masks and hand washing — reduced the spread of respiratory viruses.
The bottom line on masks: “There is simply no evidence that they make a difference. Period,” said Tom Jefferson, the study’s lead author, in an interview. When asked specifically about customized N95 masks in healthcare, Jefferson added, “It doesn’t make a difference – none of that.”
Several stores have had to close due to COVID lockdowns. (iStock)
LEARNING LOSS DUE TO COVID LOCKDOWN CAUSES PARTICULARLY IN STUDENT BEHAVIOR: EXPERTS
Lockdowns are necessary
The World Health Organization (WHO) advocated the use of lockdowns, first imposed by China, to halt the spread of COVID, and countries began implementing such measures throughout 2020. Some still have lockdown measures in place today.
Several U.S. states have imposed their own lockdowns, particularly blue states led by Democrats. Florida, Texas and other Republican-led states have been criticized by Biden, Fauci and much of the media for easing lockdown measures far sooner than places like New York and California.
A study from Johns Hopkins University last year found that lockdowns “have entailed enormous economic and social costs where they have been implemented” before concluding: “Lockdown policies are unfounded and should be rejected as a tool of pandemic policy.” .”
Several studies have also found that closing schools due to COVID to protect children, who are significantly less likely to die from the disease than adults, resulted in severe learning losses in students.
Finley Martin, 14, receives a vaccination with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine at First Baptist Church of Pasadena in Pasadena, California on May 14, 2021 (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
STUDY BY GEORGE MASON FIND ‘NO EVIDENCE’ THAT VACCINATION REQUIREMENTS IN MAJOR CITIES HAVE REDUCED COVID-19 CASES
Vaccines will stop the spread of the virus
When COVID vaccines were first made available, they were billed by the media and public health professionals as mechanisms to limit transmission of the virus and ultimately end the pandemic. Claims questioning the vaccine’s effectiveness were viewed as “misinformation” by big tech companies and the Biden administration, which classified many such claims as “conspiracy theories.”
But a new study from George Mason University’s Mercatus Center concluded that COVID vaccine mandates in nine major cities appeared to make no difference in terms of containing deaths from the pandemic.
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The study came after a director at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer admitted at a hearing before the European Parliament last year that the COVID vaccine had never been tested to stop transmission of the virus at the time it was launched. according to a video of the exchange posted by MP Rob Roos.
A CDC advisory group said Friday it recommends no more than an annual coronavirus vaccine booster.