Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and former NIH Director Francis Collins were aware of, and discussed, "breakthrough cases" of COVID in January 2021 — right when the vaccines became widely available. In her email, Walensky says that "clearly," it is an "important area of study," links to a study raising the issue, and assures the person she is sending it to that Dr. Anthony Fauci is looped into these conversations.
However, in public, Walensky was saying something quite different. Two months after discussing this data, she said vaccinated people "don't carry the virus" and "don't get sick." In a congressional hearing, after it became clear people were able to get infected with COVID even after receiving the vaccine, she defended her original statements by claiming it was true at the time she said it — namely, for the strands we were dealing with in early 2021.
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