Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday created an advisory group to help guide the state's response to COVID-19 amid a record surge in cases and hospitalizations fueled by the omicron variant.

Youngkin names advisory team to help with COVID-19 management; its leader is critical of most...
Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday created an advisory group to help guide the state's response to COVID-19 amid a record surge in

Youngkin names advisory team to help with COVID-19 management; its leader is critical of most vaccine

Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday created an advisory group to help guide the state's response to COVID-19 amid a record surge in cases and hospitalizations fueled by the omicron variant.

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Youngkin names advisory team to help with COVID-19 management; group includes Carilion CEO Nancy Agee

BY MEL LEONOR Richmond Times-Dispatch 2 hrs ago

Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday created an advisory group to help guide the state's response to COVID-19 amid a record surge in cases and hospitalizations fueled by the omicron variant. ... The group includes Nancy Agee, the CEO of Carilion Clinic. ... Youngkin will be sworn into office on Saturday and quickly assume responsibility for the state's public health care system, which is under strain due to the ongoing pandemic.

Youngkin's new "Medical Advisory Group" will include several hospital leaders, physicians and public health experts. It will be led by Dr. Marty Makary, a surgical oncologist and professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Makary is critical of vaccine mandates, except for health care workers; of "excessive" testing and masking policies at colleges and universities; and, booster shots for teens.

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Makary has been widely critical of vaccine requirements, writing in an August op-ed for U.S. News and World Report that "those who choose not to get vaccinated are making a poor health decision at their own individual risk."

In a piece for The Wall Street Journal in December, Makary wrote that booster shots for healthy young people could "cause medical harm for the sake of transient reductions in mild and asymptomatic infections." Makary argues that risk of severe illness in vaccinated young people is really low, while questions remain about the risk of heart complications from some COVID-19 vaccines.

In a different piece in The New York Post, Makary described testing, quarantining and masking requirements at U.S. colleges and universities are "draconian" given the low risk of severe illness among college-age students.

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The leader of the group is critical of vaccine mandates, except for health care workers; of "excessive" testing and masking policies at colleges and universities; and, of booster shots for teens. https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/youngkin-names-advisory-team-to-help-with-covid-19-management-its-leader-is-critical-of/article_15207759-80f7-5119-bb29-601da287c1dc.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share via
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