Thomas Massie unloads on CDC for 'lies' about vaccine effectiveness and $1B for 'vaccine confidence activities'

Rep. Thomas Massie took aim at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, questioning why the agency deserved extra funding to promote “vaccine confidence” when it has “willfully” lied about vaccine data.

“@CDCgov willfully lies about data regarding effectiveness of the vaccine, yet Congress is going to give them $1 billion ‘To strengthen vaccine confidence in the United States,’” Massie said on Twitter. “Today’s $2 trillion dollar bill includes $1 billion for ‘vaccine confidence activities.’”

The tweet comes as officials have grappled with how to calm the fears of many people who say they are hesitant to receive a coronavirus vaccine. Just 58% of adults between the ages of 50 and 80 said they were willing to receive the vaccine, according to a University of Michigan survey last year. While more recent surveys show that number is slowly ticking up, a large portion of the population is still skeptical of receiving the shot.

Massie has wrangled with the CDC for months, most notably when he tried to get the agency to correct a document he said misrepresented vaccine clinical trial data.

MASSIE RIPS INTO FAUCI AND CDC, SAYS YOU NOW HAVE ‘DUTY’ TO ‘QUESTION THEIR SCIENCE’

“And instead of fixing it, they proposed repeating it and just phrasing their mistake differently,” Massie said of a CDC document that implied vaccine trial data demonstrated that people who have had COVID-19 can benefit from vaccination. “So, at that point, right now, I consider it a lie. I think the CDC is lying about the efficacy of the vaccine based on the Pfizer trials, for those who have already had the coronavirus.”

Massie has since continued to take the CDC to task on social media, saying last month that people have a “duty” to question the science of figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and leaders of the CDC.

“Once you realize the personal ethical standards of policy makers like Dr Fauci and many of those at the CDC lead them to comfortably misrepresent scientific data in order to achieve public policy goals, it is not just your prerogative to question their ‘science,’ it is your duty,” Massie said.

Massie’s tweet on Wednesday came a day after the Kentucky Republican compared the CDC to CNN, calling both “fake news.”

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“When CNN reports on CDC, you get double the fake news,” Massie said in response to a CNN report on updated CDC guidelines.