COVID-19 data expert Kevin Roche explained to Alpha News Wednesday how the state and federal governments appear to selectively release information to craft a specific “message.”
The health care industry veteran runs Healthy Skeptic, a website that has covered medical news since long before the coronavirus pandemic. He told Alpha News that authorities are suppressing data related to “breakthrough cases,” which refer to when a person contracts coronavirus after receiving the vaccine. This apparent data suppression makes it nearly impossible for the public to determine how effective a person’s own antibodies are compared to the shot.
“The state of Minnesota has been less than forthcoming with [breakthrough] data in a variety of ways and it’s not alone in that. Most states and the CDC have taken the same approach,” Roche said, adding that it’s nearly impossible to obtain “full and accurate data” on this matter.
“They have not given us the breakthrough data by date of event, and I think that’s intentional,” he added. Despite this, he believes currently existing data show that “people are less likely to get infected after they’ve been previously infected than they are to get infected after vaccination.”
Roche said the state is coy about disclosing data because it’s concerned with maintaining a narrative.
“I think it’s a truism right now that governments are primarily driven by messaging,” he observed. “They think about the message they want first and then they put out data in a way that is designed to support that message. That’s frankly just a despicable practice. It’s disrespectful of the citizenry, and the state of Minnesota clearly does that.”
In support of this point, he referenced how Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Health seem to have been caught colluding to exaggerate the danger that COVID-19 poses to young athletes as they shut down youth sports. One lawsuit even claimed Walz engaged in a “complete fabrication” of the data.
“It was very apparent that the governor and DOH staff and others were sitting around talking about what the messaging is and trying to figure out how they can release information to support that messaging,” Roche said in reference to the Walz youth sports scandal. “That has consistently been true in Minnesota — that they will not release information that they believe in any way undermines the message.”
The government is “basically lying to people and twisting data to support the message,” he continued.
Despite his skepticism of the government’s data disclosure practices, Roche said he’s not anti-vaccine, but simply believes people should be equipped to make their own choices.
He added that there’s even some merit to the idea that people should get vaccinated, suggesting that the shot does seem to decrease the symptoms of COVID-19 in vulnerable individuals. However, he thinks the public was misled into believing that the shot would be a pandemic cure-all.
“The original message was ‘everybody should get vaccinated because the epidemic will be over,'” he recalled. “Well, now we know that in fact the vaccines within a pretty short period of time aren’t particularly effective against infection. That’s OK actually, and that’s what people should have expected. That’s how respiratory vaccines work.” He noted that public trust in the shot might be higher if public health officials had conceded this from the beginning.
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Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
