Life During Covid-19

The US Food and Drug Administration has named Dr. Vinay Prasad, a hematologist oncologist, to lead its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the division that oversees vaccines and biologic medicines.

Prasad, a professor at the University of California San Francisco, became a harsh critic of the government’s response and its vaccine policies during the Covid-19 pandemic. He replaces Dr. Peter Marks, who helped lead the division for 13 years and shaped the Operation Warp Speed effort to rapidly develop Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, a known critic of both the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration, has been appointed to lead the FDA's program overseeing vaccines and biotechnology drugs.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced the decision in a message to staff on Tuesday, lauding Prasad's "long and distinguished history in medicine." The FDA falls under the guidance of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Agency commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced Tuesday that Dr. Vinay Prasad, a prominent COVID–19 vaccine critic, has been appointed to lead the Food and Drug Administration Center, which oversees the approval of vaccines and other biologics products.

Prasad, currently a physician-scientist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, gained a following during the pandemic for criticizing mask mandates, lockdowns, and COVID-19 vaccine boosters. 

The Trump administration rolled out a revamped COVID.gov website Friday showing the "true origins" of the coronavirus, while admonishing Democrats and the media for discrediting the theory that the virus leaked from a lab and alternative health treatments, and for imposing strict mandates. 

A former ethics professor at a taxpayer funded community college in Minnesota is suing Governor Tim Walz after he was fired for refusing to comply with the state's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for government employees and expressing his opinions on the matter to his students.

Professor Russell Stewart filed a complaint in federal court Wednesday against Walz and the leadership at Lake Superior College over his March 2022 termination for non-compliance with the Covid-19 vaccine mandate and a September 2021 email he sent to students explaining his position, National Review has learned.

The most significant pandemic of our lifetime arrived as the United States was experiencing three major societal trends: a growing divide between partisans of the left and right, decreasing trust in many institutions, and a massive splintering of the information environment.

COVID-19 did not cause any of this, but these forces fueled the country’s divided response. Looking back, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) say the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together.

If the world seems to you a little nastier and more confrontational than it was just a few years ago, you're not alone. Many Americans say the world is a ruder place than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health responses that closed too many businesses and schools, effectively confined some to their homes, and isolated large numbers of people. Unfortunately, both current evidence and history suggest we may be stuck with a coarser world for years to come.

Imagine my surprise when, Sunday, I read a New York Times editorial admitting that “We Were Badly Misled” about Covid as it was happening.

The op-ed matter of factly concluded what we’ve all known for years — that despite being the overwhelmingly most “common sense” place to look, the Covid-19 lab leak theory was dismissed by scientists and public health officials, who suppressed discussions and misled the public to maintain the appearance of consensus.

The New York Times published an opinion column claiming the scientific community "badly misled" the public in an effort to suppress the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, even after the paper's own science writer called the theory "racist." 

Since scientists began playing around with dangerous pathogens in laboratories, the world has experienced four or five pandemics, depending on how you count. One of them, the 1977 Russian flu, was almost certainly sparked by a research mishap. Some Western scientists quickly suspected the odd virus had resided in a lab freezer for a couple of decades, but they kept mostly quiet for fear of ruffling feathers.