Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra claimed “instantaneous information and disinformation” was responsible for low trust in health officials.
In an interview published by The Washington Post Sunday, Becerra discussed leaving his position with fewer Americans trusting public health agencies since the pandemic in 2020.
“Sitting in his office at HHS headquarters, America’s top health official identified a culprit: a media climate that he says drowns out reliable information. False claims about vaccines run rampant online; government health experts at news conferences barely make a dent compared with influencers who have huge followings,” the report read.
“I can’t go toe-to-toe with social media,” Becerra said.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra speaks during a visit to a pharmacy in Washington, on January 12, 2023. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo)
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He defended the Biden administration’s decisions such as enforcing vaccine mandates or encouraging social media sites to remove “misinformation” regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Becerra insisted his department did the right thing based on the information they had at the time.
“Every chance I have to do what the science and the evidence is telling me is going to protect Americans and save lives… I’d do it again,” Becerra said.
He wondered whether the HHS or any public health agency could ever regain the American people’s trust from online influencers.
“Do I think the American public has come back to a point where they trust, whether it’s the ACA or vaccines, as much as they trust their priest or their rabbi? No,” Becerra said. “But then again, I don’t think priests… have the same standing they used to have before, either.”
Becerra defended the Biden administration for its response to the pandemic against online critics. (AP Photo)
“I don’t know what more we can do,” he added. “I’m more than willing to listen if somebody’s got some great ideas.”
While Becerra criticized online misinformation, social media companies have begun attacking President Biden in the weeks before he leaves office.
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In a nearly 3-hour long interview with Joe Rogan on Friday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the Biden administration pressuring his company during the pandemic to censor people critical of the vaccine and other pandemic-related policies.
“During the Biden administration, when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program,” Zuckerberg said. “While they were trying to push that program, they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. And they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true. They basically pushed us and said, you know, that ‘anything saying that says vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.’ And I was just like ‘We’re not going to do that, we’re clearly not going to do that, I mean that is kind of inarguably true.'”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed tension between his company and the Biden administration during the pandemic. (iStock)
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He added, “I mean basically these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse, and it’s like… these documents are, it’s all kind of out there.”
Zuckerberg also announced on Tuesday that Meta would be lifting some of its fact-checking restrictions to promote “free expression.”