Democracy Has Prevailed.

October 20, 2022

PA St Sen Doug Mastriano Is LYING About The Vaccines. Again.

Ah the classics.

In a recent press release, St Sen (and now GOP cand. for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano replays many of the Covid-19 great hits that brought him to statewide (and then nationwide) prominence in the first place.

For example, he lies in his opening:

Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33) urged residents to tell the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that COVID-19 vaccinations shouldn’t be included in the routine immunization schedule for children.

“The COVID-19 vaccine is experimental, at best, and may pose more risk to some children and teens than it does benefits,” Mastriano said. “Rushing to add this to the immunization schedule is not only dangerous, but could also disenfranchise millions of families if their kids are barred from school simply for refusing the vaccine.”

Doug seems to have rushed out his outrage about mandates. Too bad he didn't wait to see this in The Washington Post:

But the claim was wrong: The CDC cannot mandate that schoolchildren receive vaccines, a decision left up to states and jurisdictions, the agency and multiple public health officials said. The initial tweet by Nicole Saphier, a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, also misconstrued a planned meeting of CDC advisers, who voted Wednesday to add coronavirus vaccines to the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC), a safety-net program that offers the shots at no cost. A separate meeting set for Thursday would address the agency’s immunization schedule for children.

But that's not the biggest lie in those two paragraphs. The biggest lie is that Doug is still spreading the "experimental" line of anti-vaxx rhetoric.

Much like he did almost exactly a year ago

"I guess I shouldn't call it a 'vaccine,'" Mastriano continued, a reference to false claims and disinformation that mRNA vaccines, such as the ones from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are not true vaccines because they rely on a new medical technology to spur antibody production. The inoculation from Johnson & Johnson is a more traditional vector vaccine.

That was October 10, 2021. What Doug said then is a lie and it's a lie now. Facts are stubborn things.

Then there's this from Doug's press release:

Medical experts and researchers have released multiple studies pointing to the ineffectiveness of the vaccine in preventing infection or transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Data from the CDC released in October notes more than 783,000 people sought care for adverse vaccine reactions, and preliminary reports suggest nearly 17,000 died.

That part contains the biggest dishonesties of all. If you were to see the link on the word "reports" and wonder what it links to, it links to this page at the CDC. Before clicking on it, you would probably think that that link actually supports Doug's assertions regarding the post-vaccination adverse reactions and death.

But it does not.

This is actually what it says:

What You Need to Know

And remember when Doug said that "preliminary reports suggest nearly 17,000 people died" after taking the vaccine? Where do you think Doug got that number?

Well, there's this from the page Doug linked to:

Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. More than 627 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through October 12, 2022. During this time, VAERS received 16,888 preliminary reports of death (0.0027%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. CDC and FDA clinicians review reports of death to VAERS including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records. [Emphasis in original.]

See where it says that "VAERS received 16,888 preliminary reports of death" it's a few lines away from this sentence in bold that reads "Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem."

That's where.  However Doug leaves out all the necessary limitations about the VAERS data. In any event, together that means that Doug Mastriano is lying to you. He just doesn't think you'll check his work.

Where does he think he is, University of Brunswick?

You're a liar, Doug Mastriano. And your lies will make people sick and some of them may well die.