WH health officials tout efficacy of vaccines in response to misleading Fox segment
At the White House COVID-19 response team briefing Wednesday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci defended vaccines, after a segment on Tucker Carlson’s Fox show cast doubt on their efficacy. Fauci said of the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines, “You can’t walk away from the facts, and the facts are stunningly obvious.”
Video Transcript
- Last night, Tucker Carlson's show advised viewers to stop using mRNA shots entirely. And I wondered if you wanted to respond to that. That show, of course, has a pretty significant viewership. And that's a message that was sent out last night. Thank you.
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Maybe if I could just comment on the mRNA vaccine and just say last week's CDC put out data that demonstrated that if you are boosted, you are 68 times less likely to die than if you are unvaccinated-- our hospitals are full of people who have not been vaccinated. And I would encourage people to go get vaccinated. I'll see if Dr. Fauci has anything to add.
ANTHONY FAUCI: Yeah. I think the data speaks for themselves. We make recommendations based on the scientific data and the observations, particularly those that Dr. Walensky has just mentioned.
The overwhelming proportion of people in this country who are vaccinated have gotten mRNA vaccinations, either the Moderna or the Pfizer. And if you look at the data, you can't walk away from the facts. And the facts are stunningly obvious when you look at the hospitalization and deaths among unvaccinated versus vaccinated versus vaccinated and boosted. So there really isn't much to say about that except that the facts speak for themselves.
