"These vaccines work," Mr. Becerra, who isn't a doctor, said during a briefing at a pharmacy in Washington where he received one of the shots.Mr. Becerra heads the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an agency of which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are divisions. The FDA recently approved and authorized new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. The CDC then recommended them for nearly all U.S. residents ages 6 months and older.
Asked by The Epoch Times about the dearth of data on the vaccines, Mr. Becerra defended the government's position.
"Actually, there's a lot of data available about the vaccines. There is a lot of data available about the effectiveness of the vaccines. But the best data—the best proof of their effectiveness—is that we're all standing here alive because we've been vaccinated," he claimed.
"No one is safe until everyone is, and so it is time for us to do what we know best during this heightened fall and winter virus season. Let's protect our loved ones," he said.
"Apparently, Secretary Becerra has not reviewed the empirical studies bearing on his ludicrous statements," Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, told The Epoch Times via email. "He is stating the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc. Substantial fractions of the population alive today have not taken the [COVID-19] vaccines, and they are here too."