Does a leopard change its spots? CDC grabs the headlines with positive news about monkeypox vaccine, just before the truth outs

STAT in an October 3 email only:

“Last week [September 28] the CDC released heartening preliminary data on how much protection people who have had a single dose of monkeypox vaccine may have.”

For
some this meant balloons and champagne. For others, we sensed CDC
trying to get a positive story out before the bad news coming up over
the horizon made it into the news cycle.

And sure enough, the bad news was published in JAMA on September 30.

Here is how STAT tried to be evenhanded about the CDC news on September 28:

A very preliminary analysis
of data from 32 states appears to suggest that the monkeypox vaccine
being used in the United States is reducing the risk of infection among
vaccinated people, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.

Walensky
said the analysis showed that people who were eligible to be vaccinated
against monkeypox because of their personal level of risk but who had
not received the vaccine were 14 times more likely to contract monkeypox
than those who were vaccinated, when the analysis looked at data from
two weeks after receipt of a single dose.

Outside experts
cautioned against reading too much into the data, with one saying he
felt it was “premature” to publish such a finding.

STAT on October 3:

But new data published
in JAMA strike a more cautionary tone. Researchers from Howard Brown
Health in Chicago reported that 90 people who received monkeypox vaccine
— Jynneos, made by Bavarian Nordic — through their clinics from late
June to September contracted the virus. Most of those people (77%)
tested positive in the first 14 days after their first dose, a time
during which their immune responses to the vaccine were still
developing. But 21 people contracted the virus after 14 days, eight
after 28 days, and two contracted monkeypox three weeks or more after
receiving both doses of the vaccine.

Until
CDC mentions the failed NIAID 2008 Jynneos monkey trial and the
missing-in-action 2017-2022 CDC Congo trial of 1000-1600 health care
workers vaccinated with Jynneos, why would you listen to anything the
federal health agencies have to say about monkeypox vaccine? Or
anything else, for that matter?

In an article dated October 2, but which has an older video clip embedded, NBC asked
Rochelle how CDC will regain trust. Can you believe what she said?
CDC needs a RESET (she used the word twice!) and she wants to pay people
overtime when they stay up all night to protect the rest of us.

She
was asked about monkeypox—what about people saying they’ve been here
before? Rochelle got busy explaining why monkeypox is different from
COVID, dodging the real question. She also said, again, there is never a
bad time to get your new booster. I don’t think you can teach any new
tricks to this dog. But she sure is obedient! I think they will keep
her around for a long time.