RFK Gonna Have His Hands Full: GOP-Led COVID Subcommittee Claims Vaccines Saved 'Millions of Lives,'

The GOP-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic claims "there is little doubt that the rapid development and authorization of COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives." Its only cited evidence is two modeling studies, not real-world data.

Subcommittee Democrats claim the GOP "and their witnesses echoed extreme and debunked claims about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, including by casting doubt on whether the COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives."

The tacit agreement on COVID vaccines' ultimate value between the majority's updated final report, the result of a nominal subcommittee markup Wednesday, and the minority's counter-report received less attention in mainstream media than their dispute over SARS-CoV-2's origin, pandemic policy response and federal officials' liability.

Subcommittee GOP leaders also touted "new evidence" the Justice Department empaneled a criminal grand jury to investigate COVID origins and subpoenaed the EcoHealth Alliance, which passed through taxpayer funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab-leak suspect.