Republicans on the panel, doctors and just people who play it on TV, offered predictable assessments. Impossible”, so we started with the unsubstantiated claim that “covid was intentionally released” from a Chinese lab.
Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Georgia) pushed the ball forward by telling the committee that coronavirus booster injections “do more harm than good.”
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Georgia) scored for this extraordinary medical discovery.
If you get vaccinated, you are more likely to be infected with the new coronavirus! Thank you Dr. Judea Space Laser.
But the panel’s greatest contribution to the science of misdirection is in featuring, as witnesses, three scientists who have done more than anyone else to defend the herd immunity approach to covid. Two of them said, “Great Barrington Declaration,” was published by a Koch-backed group. claimed In 2020, for allowing the virus to spread through the population while somehow isolating the elderly and vulnerable.
If they had beaten making herd immunity official policy, hundreds of thousands More Americans may have died. President Donald Trump and Republican governors have used these scientists’ claims that defame face masks, quarantines and vaccines to fuel resistance to public health restrictions.
One of the witnesses, Johns Hopkins University surgeon and Fox News regular Marty Makari, used the committee meeting to present a variant of the novel coronavirus. He declared with absolute certainty that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
“It’s a no-brainer that it came from the lab,” he declared. I don’t get it.”he even suggested Two of the country’s top virologists They knew this, but were bribed with a grant by Anthony Fauci, so they “changed their tune.”
How is that for sound science? Some (including the now “distrusted” Department of Energy) believe the virus originated in a laboratory. Others believe it occurred naturally. No one knows for sure—except Makali. And he knows with equal certainty that whatever unknown evidence appears, it will support him.
No peer-reviewed study was needed to predict this kind of nonsense happening.
Makari is the man predicted In late February 2021, he said, “covid will be nearly gone by April.” he also sauce Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made dubious claims that face masks cause unhealthy levels of carbon dioxide in children’s blood.
Another eyewitness, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University (who is also a Fox News regular on medical and non-medical issues), called the coronavirus test “actively harmfuland warned aboutgreat harm” and “dangerous” From vaccination.he worked on study covid mortality is same as fluand he claimed in March 2020:little evidence“The new coronavirus will kill millions of people if left unchecked.”
The three had first-class academic backgrounds and were dressed ragged like professors. One had a suit jacket with a hole in the elbow, another had a hoodie hanging over a chair, and a third was wearing her business suit with her Harley Athletic socks. But when they spoke, their tone was less academic and sober than the cable news combat.
Macari, who mocked “King Fauci,” argued that “the biggest perpetrator of misinformation during the pandemic is the U.S. government.” Bhattacharya repeatedly complained that they were “censored”, “left behind” and “defamed” by public health “dictators”. Another witness, Swedish epidemiologist Martin Kurdolf, said the COVID-19 restrictions were the “worst attack” on the poor and middle class “since quarantine”.
Eyewitnesses say public health officials and scientists were wrong about everything: masks, vaccines, natural immunity, shutdowns, but the dissidents were not wrong. Bhattacharya argued that “tough measures” against covid “failed to protect Americans” while ensuring that people would “never trust public health officials again.”
it’s rich Far from being marginalized, these critics have become right-wing celebrities, accepted by the Trump administrationTheir ideas helped build resistance to masks and vaccines, but at the cost of countless lives. Now they blame this debacle for the advice of public health officials that prompted Americans to resist.
The effectiveness of school closures and vaccination mandates requires significant debate. Officials with limited information made many mistakes. But it seems that those seeking an honest answer will need to look elsewhere than at select covidiocy committees.
This Only Republican Knows How To Get Things Done
You don’t have to do it this way. Just ask Mike Gallagher. A Wisconsin Republican, he was named head of the new House Select Committee on the Communist Party of China — and the chairman has so far made his panel into everything the covid committee isn’t. Changing: Bipartisan, serious and productive.
“This is an existential struggle over what life will be like in the 21st century, with the most basic freedoms at stake,” he said at the panel’s opening. golden time hearing Tuesday — On the same day, the covid commission held a frivolous forum. “Time is not on our side. ”
Instead of taking partisan shots, he showed “a joint video put together by ranking members and myself to set the stage for the hearing.” Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamooti (Illinois) acknowledges that “both Democrats and Republicans underestimated the Chinese Communist Party,” praising bipartisanship and “our unity as Americans.” retaliated by doing
Witnesses (including two former Trump advisors) and other lawmakers said Rep. I maintained a pleasant feeling that I expressed.
The only objections in this room were two hecklers from a far-left group code pinkThey put up signs saying, “China is not our enemy,” and “Stop the hate of Asia.”
Gallagher waited patiently for them to be removed. “Your billboard is upside down,” he said to the “Stop Asian Hate” man, who corrected his poster.
Several Democrats obliquely referenced Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Tex.)’s racist remarks.Naturally, on Fox News) challenged the loyalty to the United States of Rep. Judy Chu (D-California), a Chinese-American. But Gallagher already called it “off limitsDuring a joint interview with Krishnamoorty on CBS’s “Face the Nation” — one of multiple joint appearances and statements by the pair.
Gallagher is exactly the kind of person you’d want to take on as China’s escalating aggression propels us into a new Cold War.A 39-year-old Princeton graduate Former Marine Captain With a PhD in International Relations, this week his panel “There are no bombers.”
Gallagher worked closely with Democrats to draft a package of rules to guide the commission over the next two years, Krishnamooti explained. It passed without debate, amendment, or downvote on Tuesday.
That’s what happens when leaders put country before party.
Yet another far-right extremist takes a seat of honor
And then there are leaders like James Comer. The Kentucky Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee (which includes the covid choices subcommittee) has shown himself to be a very dumb bear.
last week he letter Addressing the Ohio train derailment to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, he referred to “DOT’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)” and sent “all documents and communications concerning the NTSB’s progress regarding the cause of the derailment” to Buttigieg’s office. requested to
Buttigieg responded He said, “I was surprised to learn that the chairman of the House Oversight Committee considers the NTSB to be part of our division. The NTSB is independent (with good reason).
Comer claimed on Fox News that it was a “typo”.
Then this week, Comer paused his frequent (and sometimes contradictory) attacks on Hunter Biden to disparage the integrity of the president’s other son, Beau.
Comer Said On Lou Dobbs’ podcast, “It was the president’s other son, Beau Biden, who was involved in the campaign donations from the indicted person.” was involved in some of the Comer suggested that the president’s deceased son should have been indicted.
Alas, many House Republican committee chairs follow the Cummer model of leadership more than the Gallagher model, using their position to provide a platform for extremists. As I pointed out, the House Energy and Commerce Committee joined Comer’s panel to raise the voices of those who cling to the racist “great alternative” conspiracy theory.
Last month, Rep. Jim Jordan’s Judiciary Committee appear as a witness A man who is a member of the far-right “Constitutional Sheriff” movement. The Constitutional Sheriff is an outgrowth of the white nationalist popular community movement that claims to be above federal and state governments and to be the ultimate arbiter of law.Nonprofit Arizona Research and Reporting Center found Witness Cochise County Sheriff Mark Danells, speaking at a Constitutional Sheriff’s event, said he supported the sheriff’s overriding the law.
This week, it was the turn of extremism on the House Homeland Security Committee. As a witness, we had Sheriff Mark Lamb (another constitutional sheriff) of Pinal County, Arizona. While avoiding words, Ram is the “front man” of one Constitutional Sheriff’s Group, has spoken with another Sheriff’s Group, and has also advocated for nullification. AZCIR ReportBooster of the “Stop Theft” rally “Very Loving Christian People”) and the anti-Vaxor movement (he refused to enforce the stay-at-home order of the Republican governor of Arizona), he responded to the Black Lives Matter movement, “Citizens Posse” At Ram’s will, he acts as a substitute for the residents.
About a week before coming to Washington, Lamb spoke at a Second Amendment rally. Oathkeepers, Proud Boys and Other Extremists JoinHe made fun of running for Senate and took pictures with some of the Proud Boys.
And just ten days later he was there Witness table in Homeland Security Commission hearing roomChairman Mark Green (Republican, Tennessee) welcomed Lamb’s “essential role in defending our homeland”.
This is exactly how Republicans in Congress bring dangerous extremists into the mainstream.
