Does a leopard change its spots? CDC grabs the headlines with positive news about monkeypox vaccine

2 days later the JAMA publishes better data questioning its benefits. CDC never tells us what its trial in Congo learned about the vaccine. And always admits...nothing

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.