Washington Post: Influential public health expert finally admits COVID-19 deaths are wildly overcounted, asks if people are dying 'from' or 'with' COVID



In February 2020, the first American died from COVID-19, according to health officials. In the nearly three years since, there have been 1,095,149 COVID-19 deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, a prominent public health expert warns that officials have been overcounting COVID-19 deaths.

Leana Wen is an emergency physician, CNN medical analyst, Washington Post contributor, and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Wen previously served as a global health fellow at the World Health Organization and as the president of Planned Parenthood.

Wen wasn't only a talking head on cable TV. Politico reported in April, "Wen also has some direct lines into the White House as part of a group of health experts who have received private briefings on Covid policy throughout the pandemic."

The White House has cited Wen's opinions about coronavirus in the past.

Wen rose to fame during the COVID-19 pandemic. The medical pundit made a name for herself by preaching hardline proposals such as not permitting unvaccinated Americans to travel. Wen urged President Joe Biden to enact draconian measures against unvaccinated individuals.

In September 2021, she proposed that anyone not vaccinated for COVID-19 should be barred from interstate travel, businesses should not serve the unvaccinated, called for mandating every American over the age of 12 to be vaccinated, and require all U.S. residents have a national proof of vaccination.

At the same time, Wen demonized unvaccinated Americans — comparing them to drunk drivers.

In October 2020, Wen demanded a national mask mandate and declared, "Masks work. They are the single most effective intervention we have to stop the tidal wave of COVID-19."

Last January, Wen advocated for universal masking regardless of vaccination status. She even championed wearing two face masks at the same time.

"Everyone should be wearing at least a three-ply surgical mask — a cloth mask on top can help with fit," Wen stated.

However, Wen said in December 2021, "Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron."

On Friday, Wen arrived to a conclusion regarding COVID deaths that has been proposed by others years ago.

Wen penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled: "We are overcounting covid deaths and hospitalizations. That’s a problem."

In the article, Wen asked a question that conservatives have been asking since near the beginning of the pandemic: "But are these Americans dying from covid or with covid?"

Wen proposed, "Understanding this distinction is crucial to putting the continuing toll of the coronavirus into perspective. Determining how likely an infection will result in hospitalization or death helps people weigh their own risk. It also enables health officials to assess when vaccine effectiveness wanes and future rounds of boosters are needed."

Shira Doron — the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine health system — told Wen that "some days" only 10% of those hospitalized at the Tufts Medical Center were there because of COVID-19 illness.

Robin Dretler — an attending physician at Emory Decatur Hospital and the former president of Georgia’s chapter of Infectious Diseases Society of America — estimates that 90% of the patients at his hospital diagnosed with COVID-19 are actually in the hospital for another illness.

"Since every hospitalized patient gets tested for covid, many are incidentally positive," Dretler said.

Dretler added, "People who have very low white blood cell counts from chemotherapy might be admitted because of bacterial pneumonia or foot gangrene. They may also have covid, but covid is not the main reason why they’re so sick."

Wen suggested, "A gunshot victim or someone who had a heart attack, for example, could test positive for the virus, but the infection has no bearing on why they sought medical care."

"If these patients die, covid might get added to their death certificate along with the other diagnoses," Wen wrote. "But the coronavirus was not the primary contributor to their death and often played no role at all."

However, this concept of labeling COVID-19 deaths as something completely irrelevant is nothing new.

In July 2020, TheBlaze reported how deaths in Florida were wrongly attributed to COVID-19. A 60-year-old Palm Beach County man who died from a gunshot wound to the head was categorized as a COVID-19 death. The investigative team at WPEC-TV found that a "90-year-old man who fell and died from complications of a hip fracture" and "a 77-year-old woman who died of Parkinson's disease" were labeled as COVID-19 deaths.

In the same month, a man in his 20s was listed as a COVID-19 death despite dying in a motorcycle crash.

In November 2020, a 51-year-old Croatian man who died after falling off a 10-foot ladder was listed as a COVID-19 fatality.

In August 2020, TheBlaze senior editor Daniel Horowitz exposed how COVID-19 deaths were overcounted in Maricopa County, Arizona.

In fact, the CDC previously admitted that only a small percentage of COVID-19 deaths were solely from coronavirus. TheBlaze cited the CDC in August 2020, "For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death."

Doron warned, "Overcounting covid deaths undermines people's sense of security and the efficacy of vaccines."

Wen concluded, "Most importantly, knowing who exactly is dying from covid can help us identify who is truly vulnerable. These are the patients we need to protect through better vaccines and treatments."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

CNN medical analyst who said the unvaccinated should not be able to travel changes her tune, emphasizes benefits of natural immunity



A CNN medical analyst who promoted lockdowns and vaccination requirements and at one stage claimed "we can't trust the unvaccinated" has taken to the pages of the Washington Post to confirm claims that were up until recently derided as misinformation.

The so-called health expert now admits that natural immunity is optimal and that those who are vaccinated but had not previously caught COVID-19 are more susceptible to infection.

While some may be happy to see these long-censored claims printed in the Washington Post, others have suggested that what is missing from these public confirmations is an apology.

What are the details?

Leana Wen is an emergency doctor and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She was previously president of Planned Parenthood and has also served as a medical analyst on CNN.

On Dec. 9, Wen wrote an op-ed in the Post calling for an end to the vaccine mandate for members of the military.

Wen also suggested that "businesses, universities, schools and other entities that were once justified in implementing these requirements should consider removing them, too."

The CNN analyst appeared to defend stances she had taken earlier in the pandemic, claiming that "when the coronavirus vaccines were first made available, there was a compelling case for requiring them."

However, Wen noted that things and standards changed when the Omicron variant turned up.

Wen said that research has shown that vaccines' "effectiveness in reducing infection against the omicron subvariants is low and not lasting."

She cited a recent study in "Nature Communications," which found that "effectiveness against infection was about 50 percent in the first three months after vaccination but declined to around 10 percent or below thereafter."

In a study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine," Wen noted researchers found "that there was no difference in infection rates between people who received two doses of the vaccine six months earlier and those who remained unvaccinated."

Wen further noted in her piece, which would likely have been censored online earlier this year, that the new bivalent booster targeting Omicron is not particularly effective against infection.

Potentially running afoul of the mRNA vaccines' most outspoken champions, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Wen claimed that public health officials must be up front that the coronavirus vaccine is not equivalent to far more effective real vaccines, such as those used to treat polio or measles.

"Young, healthy people, most of whom already had covid, are very unlikely to become severely ill, and there is little, if any, lasting difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated people’s likelihood of infecting others," wrote Wen.

In another shibboleth-violating op-ed published Dec. 18, Wen stated, "Abundant research shows natural immunity conveys excellent protection against covid. One Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that vaccinated people who never had covid were at least three times as likely to be infected as unvaccinated people with prior infection."

She also cited a Lancet study that found "that those who were vaccinated but never had covid were four times as likely to have severe illness resulting in hospitalization or death compared to the unvaccinated who recovered from it."

The piece points out that an Israeli study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" compared a group of vaccinated people who had never had COVID-19 and a group of people who had not been vaccinated but had been previously infected with COVID-19.

It turns out that the first group had "twice the number of infections as the second" just two months after their shots, and after six months, the "first group's infection rate was nearly three times higher than the second's."

Although Wen had previously supported vaccinating children, she cited CDC analysis indicating that over 90% of adolescents have contracted the virus, meaning they likely benefit from the natural immunity touted earlier in the piece.

After questioning the utility and good of vaccine mandates, Wen highlighted the dangers they pose — which were previously unacknowledgeable on social media.

Wen referenced two sets of statistics, one from the CDC and the second from a Canadian database; the first showing that there are 39 myocarditis cases per million second doses among males 18 to 24 and the second showing that there are 22 cases for every 100,000 doses for men ages 18 to 29.

About-face and backlash

Wen has ostensibly come a long way in her thinking in a short period of time.

In July 2021, Wen spoke to Democracy Now! bemoaning vaccine hesitancy and claiming that "we know that we can't trust the unvaccinated."

When the Delta variant turned up, Wen told CNN that "it needs to be hard for people to remain unvaccinated."

\u201cCNN medical contributor Leana Wen says that life needs to be "hard" for unvaccinated Americans!\n\nWhat a tyrannical monster! \n\n\u201d
— Luke Rudkowski (@Luke Rudkowski) 1626032537

The health policy professor suggested to CNN's Chris Cuomo that societal reopening must be tied to vaccination status.

She said, "We need to start looking at the choice to remain unvaccinated the same as we look at driving while intoxicated. ... You have the option to not get vaccinated if you want, but then you can't go out in public."

Wen also stressed that mobility rights and other human liberties should be tied to vaccination status.

"There are privileges associated with being an American. That if you wish to have these privileges, you need to get vaccinated. Travel, and having the right to travel in our state, it’s not a constitutional right as far as I know to board a plane," she told CNN on another occasion.

\u201c.@DrLeanaWen: \u201cThere are privileges associated with being an American. That if you wish to have these privileges, you need to get vaccinated. Travel, and having the right to travel in our state, it\u2019s not a constitutional right as far as I know to board a plane."\u201d
— Tom Elliott (@Tom Elliott) 1631292960

In response to Wen's recent op-eds, New York art dealer Eli Klein expressed his surprise that the "Washington Post finally published the truth about natural immunity."

\u201cWow, the Washington Post finally published the truth about natural immunity in a piece by Leana Wen. \n\n\u201c\u2026vaccinated people who never had covid were at least three times as likely to be infected as unvaccinated people with prior infection.\u201d\u201d
— Eli Klein (@Eli Klein) 1671544247

Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, tweeted, "The media coverage of COVID-19 research on natural immunity has evolved from being banned on Twitter to being embraced by the same *experts* who applauded the original bans. The only thing missing is the apologies and the commitment to not repeat the outrageous past mistakes."

Revolver News suggested that Wen's admissions are "too little too late. Dr. Wen and her ilk conspired with the FBI and Big Tech to suppress these very facts that we needed to make sound decisions about how to respond to a novel pathogen. Their totalitarian streak cost us our freedom of movement, freedom of association, and our bodily autonomy."

SDI Productions/Getty Images

Biden says we can do what we’ve been doing: Ignore the science

It's almost as if the 'new normal' we were threatened with for so long isn’t going to happen after all.

Leana Wen Created A Mob Of Covid Karens And Now They’re Coming For Her

After changing her views on Covid, Leana Wen is facing cancellation from the hysterics she created.

Monkeypox Is The Left’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’

If you didn't learn it from the Covid hysteria, you had better learn it now. Don't expect anything productive or useful from our 'experts.'

Science On Covid And Kids Hasn’t Changed, Only The Politics Has

Only one circumstance has changed, and it has nothing to do with science. It has to do with the calendar year.

CNN medical expert gets abruptly fact-checked after claiming 'the science has changed' on mask mandates: 'The polls changed'



CNN medical expert and former Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen incited mockery on social media after she claimed Monday that mask mandates are no longer necessary because "the science has changed."

Wen's comments came after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) announced that mask mandates for schools in each state would soon end.

What did Wen say?

Speaking on CNN, Wen explained that she agreed with New Jersey's and Delaware's decisions because, in part, "the science has changed."

"There was, and is, a time and place for pandemic restrictions. But when they were put in, it was always with the understanding that they would be removed as soon as we can," Wen said. "And, in this case, circumstances have changed — case counts are declining. Also, the science has changed."

Wen, however, did not address what "science" has changed, or what "science" once showed that mask mandates in schools were absolutely necessary.

"The science has changed." @DrLeanaWen\u00a0explains why she supports lifting some pandemic restrictions and thinks the decision to wear a mask should shift from a government mandate to an individual choice.pic.twitter.com/vaiybBBF2b
— Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0 (@Anderson Cooper 360\u00b0) 1644284640

Perhaps most ironic about Wen's interview is that she said the conversation about face masks must now shift from government mandates to "individual responsibility."

"In this case, I'm not saying — I don’t think anyone, really, is saying — that no one should ever wear masks. But rather that the responsibility should shift from a government mandate imposed from the state or the local district of the school ... it should shift to an individual responsibility by the family, who can still decide that their child can wear a mask if needed."

The admission comes just weeks after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) empowered parents to do exactly what Wen suggested by signing an executive order moving the power to determine masking from school officials to individual parents.

Democrats grumbled over Youngkin's order, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki as recently as Monday complained about it — all while praising Murphy's decision.

What was the reaction to Wen?

Wen's comments triggered a tsunami of reaction online, the consensus of which went something like this: "science" has not changed — only Democrats' political standing has changed.

  • "The polling numbers have changed. The political landscape has changed.That's why you're promoting a different propaganda message now. That's all.If the science itself had changed, we'd see new peer-reviewed studies that indicate the change," psychology professor Geoffrey Miller said.
  • "As others noted, there is nothing in The Science™ that changed to justify Dem politicians suddenly ending mask mandates. All that changed is the political fear they have.Conflating 'The Science' with politics like this is a key reason many lost trust in public health experts," Glenn Greenwald observed.
  • "Has anything fundamentally changed in the last six months, except for Democrats finally, belatedly realizing that militant masking is a political loser? The science didn’t change, the politics changed," Reason editor Robby Soave said.
  • "The science didn’t change, the polls changed," entrepreneur David Sacks reacted.
  • "'The science' is the method, not the data. 'The science has changed' is something you say when you’re unscientific but want to sound to lay people like you are," Noam Blum pointed out.
  • "The ‘science’ hasn’t changed. The wind has… And they see which way it’s blowing," actor Rob Schneider said.
  • "Weird. 'I trust the science' has been the go-to moral response to questioning CDC policy. Now we’re told the science can change. Are we still not allowed to question CDC policy?" commentator Becket Adams questioned.
  • "No, the science didn't change. Politics and agendas did. Corona restrictions like lockdowns, mask mandates, and antisocial distancing are cut from the cloth of pseudoscience. It's what happens when you allow hypochondriacs to drive public policy," another person pointed out.
  • "What happened to Leana’s original ‘The science is settled’ argument? History will not be kind to people like her," one person said.
  • "This is gaslighting. She is brazenly lying, her statements flying in the face of all evidence, most of which has been there for more than 2 years. This is what happens when sociopaths get caught--they double down on their lies. They never stop lying," author Tucker Max observed.

Right on cue, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Tuesday that Democrats need to begin communicating "a clear off-ramp" on the pandemic.

Health ‘experts’ finally admit masks control people, not viruses

These masks and the mandates that accompany them have never been about controlling a virus. They've always been about controlling people.

CNN medical analyst: Unvaccinated people in public are the same as drunk drivers



CNN medical analyst and former head of Planned Parenthood Dr. Leana Wen recently compared unvaccinated people who venture out in public to drivers who dangerously take to the road while intoxicated.

The emergency physician who once claimed, "No one should tell you what to do with your body," has in recent days been busy demanding the government do just that as it relates to COVID-19 vaccines.

"We need to start talking about the choice to remain unvaccinated as the choice to go out and drive intoxicated," Wen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Saturday.

Wen also made the argument Thursday to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, saying, "You have the option to not get vaccinated if you want, but then you can't go out in public ... just like you can choose to drink in private if you want, but if you get behind the wheel of a car and can endanger other people there is an obligation by society to prevent you from doing that."

"The vaccinated should not have to pay the price for the so-called choices of the unvaccinated anymore," she continued, advocating for government intervention.

Fake news CNN is at it again.Propagandist Chris Cuomo had on former president of Planned Parenthood and woke vacc… https://t.co/ywQIoAUZxF

— Francesco (@Frances40996115) 1631539231.0

But she wasn't finished. In an opinion column published by the Washington Post Wednesday, Wen made the questionable comparison once again.

"Some might balk at this comparison, but here are the similarities," she wrote. "Both causes of severe bodily harm are largely preventable — COVID-19 through vaccination, and drunken driving by not driving after drinking alcohol. Both are individual decisions with societal consequences."

"The vaccine is simultaneously like a great seat belt and a choice to drive sober," she continued. "The seat belt reduces your chance of severe injury in an accident. Driving sober reduces the risk of the accident in the first place. The vaccine does both, but it still matters if you're surrounded by reckless drivers."

Based on her repeated use of the faulty analogy, it appears Wen's expertise may be limited to the field of medicine.

Refusing a vaccine is nothing like drunk driving. Not putting something in your body (the vaccine) is quite literally the opposite of putting something in your body (alcohol). And so far as it pertains to the risks associated with other people, an effective vaccine ought to protect someone from unvaccinated virus carriers, or at least that's what health experts have been arguing for months.

If the vaccine's efficacy against COVID-19 is strong, you might say that vaccinated people are those driving around in armored vehicles with seat belts on, but that's as far as the analogy should go — and that's to say nothing about those unvaccinated individuals who also have broad immunity based on prior infection.

But a more contextual analysis of the situation is not to be expected from Wen. After all, it's only been two years since the physician launched a campaign in support of bodily autonomy.

Two days after this tweet, she and PP launched a "BansOffMyBody" campaign (https://t.co/4ti5z8o0XR), which featured… https://t.co/FwvneDrpgW

— Chris Field (@ChrisMField) 1631542683.0

"Every person deserves the right to control their body, their life, and their future," she argued in the Planned Parenthood campaign. "Our bodies are our own — if they are not, we cannot be truly free or equal."

CNN COVID ‘Expert’ Discovers Personal Responsibility

Wait, you mean to tell me we've all had the power to take care of ourselves all along?!