On Monday, January 24, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) moderated a panel discussion on the COVID-19 response and vaccine efficacy and safety. “COVID-19: A Second Opinion,” held in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., also focused on discussing censorship from Big Tech and the mainstream media, pandemic response effect on children, and vaccine mandate impact on worker shortage.
Several world-renowned experts joined the discussion, including Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone.
Aaron Kheriaty, MD, former professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine medical school, also joined the discussion. Kheriaty expressed concerns that the benefits of natural immunity are being ignored. “People with natural immunity are the safest people to be around,” he said.
“There has not been a single reported case of someone [with natural immunity] getting reinfected and subsequently transmitting the virus to others,” Kheriaty said. “Which we know is not the case for vaccines—vaccines don’t offer, against COVID, that kind of sterilizing immunity. So, we [contacted] the CDC and said, ‘Please show us any evidence of someone with natural immunity getting reinfected and transmitting the virus to others.’ They couldn’t come up with any data.”
Kheriaty also expressed concern “that many of our pandemic policies have ignored foundational principles of medical ethics.” He argued for patient-physician freedom when it comes to determining treatment for COVID-19. “Every patient is a unique human being that has unique factors that only we and the patient really understand with sufficient depth to make difficult medical decisions,” he said. Kheriaty said that physicians should be free “to do what is best for [patients] and not [act] as the agent of a social program or a state program, or any other interest.”
Kheriaty lost his job at the University of California for refusing to get the vaccine. On December 17, 2021, he tweeted, “In August I challenged the UC vaccine mandate in federal court. Yesterday the University fired me for noncompliance with their mandate. Farewell, University of California…”
The panel discussion lasted nearly five hours and included testimony from Dr. Ryan Cole, Dr. Richard Urso, and Dr. Pierre Kory.
“The CDC has been captured by the pharmaceutical industry,” Kory said. “We have pharmacists who refuse to fill some of the safest and low-cost medicines known in the history of medicine.”
Senator Johnson also invited Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci to join the discussion. They did not attend the event.
Chris Hume is the managing editor of The Lancaster Patriot and host of The Lancaster Patriot Podcast. He can be reached at chris@thelancasterpatriot.com.
