Pandemic Preparedness and Vaccine Safety Discussion

to the topic today is the issue of pandemic preparedness

and if there's one message that I want to leave with you today

based on my experience and you'll see that in a moment

is that there is no question that there will be a challenge

the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases

but also there will be a surprise outbreak

I don't know how many times I can say it

madam chair we did not fund gain-of-function research

to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology anyway

so let me just go on about NIH lifts funding pause

on gain-of-function research that might be anticipated to create transfer or use enhanced potential pandemic pathogens

I don't think this is gonna be foolproof things are gonna slip through

if it may have been a lab may have been nature

we're supposed to look forward then why did dr. Fauci work so hard for just one of those theories

I'm almost have to laugh at that Neil I mean that's totally bizarre

first of all I wasn't leaning totally strongly one way or the other

I've always kept an open mind as you know

there's a sort of urban legend that there's a biological warfare center

in Wuhan and that the coronavirus escaped from that did you have any sense of where it probably came from

I think ultimately we know that these things come from an animal reservoir

I've heard these conspiracy theories and like all conspiracy theories they're just conspiracy theories

I wasn't leaning totally strongly one way or the other I've always kept an open mind

right now people should not be what there's no reason to be walking around with a mask

should you be wearing two masks or one mask

I often myself wear two masks can we make a general recommendation that doesn't have scientific basis yet

no please wear a mask

the chances of my getting infected in an indoor setting is extremely low

and that's the reason why in indoor settings now I feel comfortable about not wearing the mask

because I'm fully then I'm fully vaccinated when you're in a congregate indoor setting wear a mask

first of all I didn't recommend locking anything down

I went with dr. Burks into the president and said 15 days are not enough

we need to go 30 days obviously there were people who had a problem with that because of the potential secondary

effects nonetheless at that time the president went with the health recommendations and we extended it another 30 days

first of all I didn't recommend locking anything down

it's the worst possible thing you could do is vaccinate somebody

to prevent infection and actually make them worse this would not be the first time

if it happened that a vaccine that looked good in initial safety actually made people worse

what well the latter part of what you just said is untrue you don't get worse results from vaccinating

he really has the flu she definitely doesn't need a flu vaccine the optimal degree of protection

When you get infection is to get vaccinated after infection. Because the best vaccination is to get infected yourself.

The optimal degree of protection,

when you get infection, is to get vaccinated after infection.

He really has the flu.

She definitely doesn't need a flu vaccine.

So if you're saying are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are.

Is this country ready for another pandemic?

And are we still in the one we have not, that we've been talking about?

Well, we certainly are still in it.

The safety of these vaccines have been clearly established.

The long-term effects that the people are apparently concerned about

I'm sure there is a very, very, very, very rare exception,

but the long-term effects are really essentially non-existent.

Do we have any data about vaccines and the back end of that, or the negative side of that?

There's been a number of studies. New York Times just did one about menstruating cycles and how that is affected by vaccines.

Yeah. Well, the menstrual thing is something that seems to be quite transient and temporary.

That's the point. That's one of the points.

We need to study it more. We need to study it.

Because the other side that just keeps putting out misinformation and disinformation seems to be tireless in that effort.

An article in the San Francisco Examiner, I think, the Sunday magazine section, which was just phenomenal.

I still have a picture of it. It says, I call you murderer, an open letter to an incompetent idiot, Dr. Anthony Fauci,

the director of NIAID.