News/Commentary

Randi Weingarten cites outspoken doctor of a study she used to excuse extended lockdowns. BIG mistake.

April 28, 2023 | | Print Article

Dr. Tracy Høeg was the senior author of a 2020 Wisconsin study that looked at COVID-19 cases and transmission in 17 K-12 schools.

So, when Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest teacher’s labor union in the country, cited Høeg’s study “multiple times as evidence schools needed ‘layered mitigation’ to reopen” following the pandemic lockdowns, the scientist’s ears likely perked up — and for good reason.

Weingarten, who fiercely fought to keep kids from going back to their classrooms, mentioned Høeg by name in her written testimony to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and according to the epidemiologist, “her interpretation of our study are incorrect.”

In a lengthy, brutal thread, Høeg ripped into Weingarten’s testimony, shredding the union leader’s remarks, along with the scraps of her crumbled credibility.

The Wisconsin study, Høeg stated, “had no control group.”

“It was not possible to determine the specific roles that mask-wearing and other disease mitigation strategies played in the low rate of disease spread, and information on school ventilation systems was not obtained,” the paper, published online in January 2021, clearly reads.

“In other words because we had no unmasked control group, our study did not show masks prevented transmission,” Høeg tweeted. “It amazes me this is so difficult for people to understand.”

“The rate of transmission may have been the same or even lower without masks,” she stated. “Who knows.”

Høeg pointed to studies from Sweden and Norway that indicated “masks weren’t necessary.”

But, if Weingarten or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had questions about the safety of letting school children eat their lunches indoors or the necessity of keeping them six feet apart, they could have simply asked the study authors.

According to Høeg, 90% of elementary kids in the 13-week study sat less than six feet apart from one another, and they ate lunch inside. Half of the schools hadn’t installed new ventilation systems.

The results contradicted the need for any mitigation efforts.

“We saw remarkably low in school transmission & no known transmission to teachers,” Høeg stated.


Between the CDC, who repeatedly told Americans they needed to “follow The Science,” and the AFT, “millions” of American children suffered.

“The fact the @CDCgov was taking the advice of the @AFTunion & not the scientists publishing on this topic in their own journal and without considering the data from Europe seems to have played a role in the massive error that left millions US kids out of school unnecessarily,” Høeg wrote.

“The way Ms Weingarten mentioned me in her testimony, one might have thought I was being consulted all along but this was not the case,” she continued. “The first time I met with her I voiced my disagreement about masking children in school along with @DrJBhattacharya in Sept 2021!”

Dr. Høeg stopped just shy of calling Weingarten a straight-up liar.

“Despite the wording in @rweingarten’s written testimony, I consistently *disagreed* w/ what she & AFT were requesting in terms of mitigation to reopen schools & I’ve said that consistently (on social media, in op-eds, on news interviews) since our study was published,” she stated.

“I don’t agree w/how our study & I am being used to make it seem we needed more mitigation before full reopening; no-in fact the *delay* that was perilous,” Høeg wrote. “Ultimately @CDCgov faltered because they looked to AFT instead of European & US data.”

“Our kids,” she concluded, “paid an unnecessary price.”

While Høeg may have avoided the “L” word, those who read her thread used it with abandon.

“The only thing @rweingarten is good at is attempting to spin things to benefit her,” one Twitter user wrote. “She doesn’t ever succeed, but she certainly puts forth an effort in her attempts.”

Melissa Fine
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