Frank Luntz is hardly a newsworthy individual. The GOP consultant (who also has close ties to Joe Biden’s family) who has a mock Oval Office in his house for some reason is most known for his “focus groups” which always seem to tell him exactly what he wants to hear. You also might remember him as the guy who definitively pronounced that Hillary Clinton would be the next president. That happened on election night.

Still, a comment he made recently represents a perfect chance to talk about a study that not only proves him wrong but represents a complete repudiation of the entire federal government narrative surrounding vaccine mandates.

Last night, a video of a nurse being fired for not getting vaccinated went viral. As of this morning, it has over 5.4 million views and counting. That’s when the lumpy consultant jumped in to trash her as putting other people’s health at risk.

Alternate caption: Nurse fired for putting patients’ health at risk. https://t.co/aCQ1QRXFcA

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) November 1, 2021

This is the most idiotic line of attack when it comes to defending vaccine mandates so I’m not at all surprised Luntz would run with it. If someone wants to say mandates are necessary because people need to be protected from themselves, I’d disagree, but at least that would have some scientific basis.

Yet, when it comes to this ludicrous idea that not getting vaccinated somehow puts others at risk, we have a major, peer-reviewed study that just came out that says the opposite. I touched on it in a prior article, but it’s worth reiterating the findings because I believe they are vitally important to fighting overburdensome, likely unconstitutional government mandates (see New Study Significantly Undermines Government Case for Vaccine Mandates)

Vaccinated people are just as likely as unvaccinated people to spread the delta variant to contacts in their household, a yearlong study found https://t.co/2Px9LM5WcB

— Bloomberg (@business) October 28, 2021

What the study found was that viral loads are similar and that vaccinated individuals are just as likely to spread the Delta variant as anyone else, whether they are unvaccinated or have natural immunity. That does not mean that the vaccines “don’t work.” What it means is that while they offer protection against serious illness, they don’t work to stop the spread. That is something the CDC director admitted months ago.

Further, that reality has been apparent for a long time because we’ve seen highly vaccinated US states and other countries hit record-high caseloads over the last several months. Logically, because the Delta variant is only 40% more infectious, that could only happen if the vaccinated were also spreading COVID at a high rate.

Again, that is not an anti-vaccine point, though those who support vaccine mandates desperately want to paint all nuance as such in order to not have to defend their position. Rather, this latest data serves as a rebuke of the measures being taken. There is no scientific reason to fire a nurse for not getting vaccinated, especially given most nurses have likely already had COVID-19 and have natural immunity. Whether this specific nurse was previously infected, I don’t know, but the data says it doesn’t matter. She is no more a risk to her patients than a vaccinated nurse. Also, medical workers wear N95s, which I’m assured work by the same people who support vaccine mandates.

As a counter, I’ve seen someone suggest that the unvaccinated are more likely to develop symptoms and therefore could spread it more easily by coughing and sneezing. Yet, no hospital is going to allow a nurse who is symptomatic to work so that’s a nonsensical concern.

In short, Luntz has no idea what he’s talking about, and perhaps he should have a little more grace for the people who work long hours in tough conditions to help others.