Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) grilled Health and Human Secretary Xavier Becerra during a congressional hearing on Thursday in regards to the Biden Administration’s obvious refusal to recognize the ability for some to have natural immunity against COVID-19.
What Happened?
Paul started this tense exchange during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing, and he began by asking Becerra if he had been aware of an Israeli study that had found that natural immunity was an entity that provided much stronger protection than the COVID-19 vaccine.
Becerra admitted that he was “not familiar with that study” and that is when Paul tore into the secretary.
“I think you might want to be if you’re going to travel the country insulting the millions of Americans, including NBA star Jonathan Isaac, who had COVID, [and] recovered — look at a study with 2.5 million people, and say, ‘Well, you know what, I should make the decision,'” Paul said. “Instead, you’ve called Jonathan Isaac and others, myself included, flat-earthers. We find that very insulting, it goes against the science.”
“Are you a doctor or a medical doctor?” Paul pressed.
As a matter of fact, Becerra is neither a medical doctor or a public health expert. He spent several decades in politics before transferring to Joe Biden’s Cabinet this year. True to form, Becerra dodged the direct question from Paul, saying that he has “worked over 30 years on health policy.”
Paul continued to grill Mr. Becerra in a manner that would make the characters in A Few Good Men proud:
You’re not a medical doctor. Do you have a science degree? And yet you travel the country, calling people flat-earthers, who have had COVID, looked at studies of millions of people, and made their own personal decision that the immunity they naturally acquired is sufficient but you presume somehow to tell over 100 million Americans who survived COVID that we have no right to determine our own medical care. You alone are on high and you’ve made these decisions, a lawyer with no scientific background, no medical degree. This is an arrogance coupled with an authoritarianism that is unseemly and un-American.
You, sir, are the one ignoring science. The vast preponderance of scientific studies, dozens and dozens, show robust, long-lasting immunity after COVID infection. Even the CDC does not recommend measles vaccine if you have measles immunity. The same was true for smallpox. But you ignore history and science to shame the flat-earthers, as you call them. You should be ashamed of yourself and apologize to the American people for being dishonest about naturally acquired immunity.
If the Biden Administration has such a strong desire to increase vaccination rates, then Paul expressed his belief to Becerra that officials should stop “lying to people about naturally acquired immunity.”
“Quit lording it over people, acting as if these people are deplorable and unwashed. Try persuasion instead of government cudgels. Try humility instead of arrogance. Try freedom instead of coercion,” Paul said. “Most of all, try understanding there is no more basic medical right than deciding what we inject into our bodies.”
“Today, after hearing that millions of people in a study prove — show without a doubt that there is a great deal of immunity from getting it naturally — do you want to apologize to the 100 million Americans who suffered through COVID, survived, have immunity, and yet you want to hold them down and vaccinate them?” Paul continued. “Do you want to apologize for calling those people flat-earthers?”
Becerra’s response (if you can call it that) was NOT to address any of Paul’s points, but to simply claim the HHS is just following “facts” and “the science.”
Undaunted, Paul responded by telling Becerra that no, the HHS is not following the science; he also explained to Becerra that he is not necessarily arguing against the COVID-19 vaccine, but instead following government mandates for those who actually have naturally acquired immunity.
“You are just ignoring [science] because you want submission. You just want everybody to submit to your will, do as you’re told, despite the evidence, the large body of scientific evidence that says naturally acquired immunity does work, is an important part of how we’re going to recover from this,” Paul said.
Indeed, Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed some infamous concepts, but probably the worst one would have to be when he said last month that he cannot explain why Americans with naturally acquired immunity need the vaccine in the first place!