Rep. Roy demands answers from CDC on vaccine data: They 'owe us the damn truth'

close

Video

CDC director admits to media coaching on COVID messaging

'Special Report' anchor Bret Baier on the CDC's communication woes on coronavirus guidelines.

Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy’s letter to the Centers of Disease Control demanding answers on the agency’s communication on masking and vaccine effectiveness is an effort to address a "lack of transparency" and "political agenda", Roy told Fox News on Thursday.

"The American people want to know the truth," Roy explained. "And the CDC owes us the damn truth."

BIDEN ANNOUNCES NEW COVID-19 INITIATIVE AT STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Roy sent the letter to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky earlier this week asking that the agency release data on coronavirus hospitalizations that they have reportedly been withholding due to fears it would contradict its messaging on the effectiveness of vaccines.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 04: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee  (Chip Somodevilla)

"I write to you seeking answers regarding troubling reports of your agency intentionally withholding data related to COVID-19 hospitalizations," Roy wrote in a letter to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. "As recently reported by the New York Times, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allegedly withheld data, such as data on COVID-19 hospitalizations by vaccination status, because agency personnel stated the data may be misinterpreted."

AMERICANS DESERVE APOLOGY FROM CDC, BIDEN'S ANTI-SCIENCE MACHINE

Roy was referring to a New York Times report in late February that said the CDC has "been routinely collecting information since the COVID vaccines were first rolled out last year" but has been "reluctant" to make those figures public "because they might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective."

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 22: Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), joined by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), speaks at a news conference about the National Defense Authorization Bill. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Roy told Fox News that vaccines may very well end up being a net benefit to certain segments of society, the CDC still has a responsibility to release the data regardless of potential political ramifications.

"When the CDC official says, ‘oh we are reluctant to make this public because that might be interpreted as the vaccines being ineffective’, well that’s what we’ve been watching all along," Roy said. "While social media led by all these so-called experts basically have a political agenda to make everybody believe that vaccines work no matter what."

Roy added that the mere fact that the CDC has changed the definition of vaccinated over the course of the last 15 months shows that the motivations behind guidances are political.

"At first it was ‘don’t worry the vaccine stops you from getting it’ and then ‘oh crap that’s not true but we’ll kind of gloss over that,’" Roy recalled, adding that President Biden said last year that "you’re not going to get COVID" if you are vaccinated.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Roy’s letter asks Walensky to provide details on messaging and data releases regarding vaccines but also asks for information on the decision-making that went into the agency’s latest update to its mask-wearing guidance which Roy says has also been highly politicized and has not followed the science.

"On masking, you go back in March 2020 it was, wear a mask if you’re sick and if you’re not sick you don’t need to wear a face mask, then it converted to everyone should wear a mask outside, then it became masks need to be worn to protect those around you," Roy said. "Then almost a year ago it was fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask then fully vaccinated people had to wear a mask inside. In January of this year, cloth masks offer the least protection and we recommend N95. It’s just crazy. And then it changed at the State of the Union. It’s just nuts."

"The thing that drives me crazy," Roy explained. "It is really a glimpse into what happens when you turn your freedom over to unelected unaccountable bureaucrats to make decisions for you."

Atlanta, Georgia, USA - August 28, 2011: Close up of entrance sign for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (iStock)

"The bottom line is that Joe Biden at the State of the Union was talking about investigating COVID fraud. The COVID fraud that needs to be investigated is the NIH and Fauci and the CDC and Walensky and all of the mouthpieces that pushed propaganda for the sake of it. As they basically admitted in the purpose of my letter and asking about it when they said we didn’t want to risk it because we thought the effectiveness of the vaccine would be misinterpreted. That’s wrong. That’s propaganda."

Roy says the CDC has not responded to his letter or provided any information related to his questions that he submitted along with a deadline of April 1. 

The CDC did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News.