Biden’s COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha Steps Down
The Biden administration's statement seemingly implies the role of COVID-19 Response Coordinator will no longer be necessary
White House COVID-19 response coordinator claims that COVID deaths would nearly be eliminated if people would get their vaccinations and use Paxlovid
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha has claimed that coronavirus fatalities in the U.S. would drop to almost zero if everyone would stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations and take Paxlovid.
"If everybody was up to date on their vaccines and people got treated with Paxlovid ... deaths would go to close to zero across America," he said.
Paxlovid can be used to treat people who have contracted COVID-19.
\u201cDr. Ashish Jha: "Right now we have 400 to 500 Americans still dying every day. If everybody was up to date on their vaccines and people got treated with Paxlovid as they're supposed to, deaths would go to close to zero across America."\u201d— Scott Morefield (@Scott Morefield) 1660678503
Well-known public figures who have taken multiple vaccine shots have still tested positive for the illness.
Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, who had received four vaccine shots, recently announced that he tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who serves as chief medical advisor to President Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tested positive for the illness in June despite having already been fully vaccinated and twice boosted. Fauci later noted that after testing positive, he took a course of Paxlovid, and then tested negative for several days. He then tested positive again and proceeded to take another round of Paxlovid.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tested positive on Monday after having previously tested positive earlier this year.
Despite the vaccine's clear failure to prevent people from contracting COVID-19, public health officials have continued to push for people to get jab after jab.
"Almost nothing in medicine cuts risk of death by 96%," Jha tweeted earlier this month. "Almost nothing Except the COVID vaccines," he added. "Double boosted folks had 96% lower risk of death compared to unvaccinated," he said. "If you're 50 or older and haven't gotten a vaccine in 2022," he wrote. "Please go get one now It may save your life."
"Being up to date on COVID-19 vaccination provides strong protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death in all age groups. All eligible children, adolescents, and adults should remain up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website declares.
CNN reporter leaves WH COVID coordinator stumbling when confronted over Kamala Harris violating CDC guidance
A CNN reporter grilled White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on Friday over Vice President Kamala Harris skirting CDC guidelines for COVID-19 exposure.
What did Harris do?
After announcing that President Joe Biden had contracted COVID-19, the White House disclosed that Vice President Kamala Harris was a "close contact" of the president.
Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that someone deemed a "close contact" wear a well-fitting mask around others for 10 days. But that is not what Harris did.
Instead, Harris removed her face mask and hugged Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Randall Woodfin on Friday during an event in Washington, D.C. She also spoke without a mask.
\u201cKamala Harris \u2014 who the White House said yesterday was a "close contact" with Biden and his COVID diagnosis \u2014 walks on stage, immediately removes her mask, and hugs the moderator.\u201d— RNC Research (@RNC Research) 1658509481
What did Jha say?
At the White House press briefing, CNN reporter MJ Lee repeatedly questioned Dr. Jha about Harris violating CDC guidelines. Jha, however, refused to directly address Harris' actions.
"Vice President Harris is a close contact of the president’s, and the CDC guidance says that if you’re a close contact, you want to wear a well-fitting mask when you’re around other people. She just spoke at a conference in D.C. and she hugged someone without a mask on. She was also maskless for most of that conversation. Would you have recommended that she keep her mask on, given that that is the CDC guidance?" Lee asked.
Jha qualified his response by noting that he had not "been tracking the vice president's activities," then asserted that Harris is following CDC guidelines.
"I guess she isn’t following the CDC guidance though — right? — if she is hugging someone without a mask on?" Lee pushed back. "I just wanted your clarification on that."
07/22/22: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Dr. Ashish Jha youtu.be
After acknowledging that "the CDC guidance is clear," Jha refused to offer an additional response, again citing not having seen the incident.
"She took off the mask and she embraced someone. You don’t have to see it. I mean, that’s what happened," Lee fired back.
"Yeah, so usually when we think about people having contact, it’s for an extended period of time," Jha responded. "Again, I didn’t see the hug. I don’t know how long the hug lasted. But it’s very hard for me to comment on something I really didn’t see."
Anything else?
A spokesperson for Harris also declined to address Harris skirting CDC guidance.
"This morning, Vice President Harris tested negative for COVID-19 and is experiencing no symptoms," Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen said.
White House COVID czar says TSA mask mandate could 'absolutely' be extended again
With the airplane mask mandate set to expire next week, President Joe Biden's new coronavirus czar on Monday raised the possibility that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could once again extend the federal masking requirements for public transportation.
"This is a CDC decision and I think it is absolutely on the table," White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told NBC News' Savannah Guthrie on "Today."
Jha said that the CDC is developing a "scientific framework" to guide its decision making and that agency director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will make a decision on the mask mandate for planes, trains, buses, and other means of public transportation within the week.
"We're going to see that framework come out, I think, in the next few days and based on that, we're going to want to be guided by this decision," Jha said. "Throughout the entire pandemic we've wanted to make decisions based the evidence and science, and that is what I expect we'll do again this week."
.@SavannahGuthrie spoke with White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. @ashishkjha about the rising COVID cases and mask mandates.pic.twitter.com/OZX62EaN3o— TODAY (@TODAY) 1649676638
The Transportation Security Administration's mask mandate, originally set to expire in May 2021, was extended for the fourth time in March. President Biden enacted the requirements with an executive order in February 2021 to "encourage widespread mask-wearing and physical distancing on public modes of transportation, consistent with CDC guidelines and applicable law."
Congressional Republicans opposed the CDC's decision to extend the masking requirements last month because shortly beforehand the agency released new guidance that recommended that approximately 70% of Americans did not need to wear face masks indoors. Following the CDC's guidance, most states and local governments have loosened masking restrictions, or done away with them entirely, and Republicans and others questioned why the federal restrictions for public transportation remained.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) forced a vote to overturn the masking requirements that passed with bipartisan support from senators but met a veto threat from President Biden.
As the CDC considers what to do with the mask mandate this week and next, several states are reporting a rise in COVID-19 cases because of the BA.2 Omicron subvariant of coronavirus, a new and more contagious strain of the virus that spread in Europe before making its way to the United States. Scientists have observed this latest strain to spread quickly but say that it does not appear to cause deadlier disease than previous strains of the virus.
Jha said that he is "not overly concerned right now" about the possibility of another virus surge like the Delta or Omicron surges. He pointed out that case numbers and hospitalization numbers are among the lowest they've been during the entire pandemic.
“I don’t think this is a moment where we have to be excessively concerned,” Jha said.
Health expert says COVID cases should no longer be 'major metric' of pandemic, urges shift to hospitalizations, deaths
Health expert Dr. Ashish Jha said Sunday that public health officials should stop using COVID-19 case data as the central metric by which the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic is measured.
What did Jha say?
Jha — the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a former health expert at Harvard University — explained on ABC News' "This Week" the Omicron variant changes the game.
According to Jha, using case data to determine the severity of the pandemic is no longer reliable because Omicron appears less virulent despite being highly contagious.
"We have to do a shift. Look, for two years infections always preceded hospitalizations, which preceded deaths. So you could look at infections and know what was coming. Even through the Delta wave that was true because it was largely unvaccinated people who were getting infected," Jha explained.
"Omicron changes that. This is the shift we've been waiting for in many ways where we're moving to a phase where if you're vaccinated and particularly if you're boosted, you might get an infection. It might be a couple of days of not feeling so great, but you're going to bounce back. That's very different than what we have seen in the past," he continued. "So, I no longer think infections generally should be the major metric."
"Obviously, we can continue to track infections among unvaccinated people because those people will end up in the hospital at the same rate, but we really have to focus on hospitalizations and deaths now," Jha said.
Data supports administering booster shots sooner than 6 months: Dr. Jha | ABC News youtu.be
Public health officials in the U.S. apparently do not share Jha's position because they have been raising alarm about Omicron based on skyrocketing cases. However, the infection wave has not translated to higher incidences of hospitalization and death in other countries thus far.
In fact, based on rising case numbers and growing panic, leaders are returning to classic mitigation strategies including remote learning, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates.
Anything else?
During an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Jha denounced schools returning to remote learning when Christmas break ends.
"This really shouldn't even be on the table, and I'm disappointed to see this is happening," he said. "Schools should be absolutely the last place to close and the first place to open."
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