House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer grilled CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday during an hearing on the government’s role in censoring supposed “misinformation” about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Comer began his questioning by asking Walensky whether there is “a difference between medical opinions and misinformation.”
“There are things that are scientifically proven over and over again in the literature, and those eventually become fact, but I think that there are ways to interpret that–” Walensky began before Comer cut her off.
“Exactly, reasonable people disagree on a medical path forward, correct?” Comer asked, noting that patients are often encouraged to get a second opinion.
“CDC records show CDC officials sometimes flagged social media posts which they deemed to be misinformation. My question is, did the CDC work with private companies to influence the censorship about dissent of vaccines?” he pressed. (RELATED: ‘Undermines Trust’: Mark Zuckerberg Reflects On Facebook Censoring COVID-19 ‘Misinformation’)
Walensky said she would not answer because the matter is currently under litigation, prompting Comer to ask whether the CDC worked with Facebook parent company Meta to censor posts deemed to contain “misinformation” about the vaccine.
Walensky pivoted, giving the vaccine primary credit for having “gotten us out of this pandemic” before reiterating that the matter is being litigated.
🔥🔥🔥@RepJamesComer tells CDC Director Walensky that the censoring of dissenting opinions during the pandemic was unacceptable and will be investigated. pic.twitter.com/aR3mLk9V3R
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 13, 2023
“So you’re not gonna answer the question?” Comer asked. “I hear that so much: ‘it’s currently under investigation.'”
Walensky then said the CDC was focused on disseminating facts, prompting Comer to ask whether the CDC ever tried to suppress the lab leak theory or the claim that vaccines are not 100 percent effective in preventing the spread of the virus. Walensky again refused to answer while insisting that all the CDC cared about was proving the vaccine is safe.
“It turns out that some of the perspectives that the government censored … were correct all along, but the government censored that. A lab leak is possible … the vaccine did not stop spread or infection, I’m not saying it was completely bad, but it did not prevent the spread or infection.”
A batch of “Twitter Files” released in March revealed a large conspiracy by several government factions, academia and Big Tech to censor certain narratives about the coronavirus. Some of the true stories that were flagged for review included stories about vaccine side effects.