Anthony Fauci, the former chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was better known to most Americans as the federal government’s point man on pandemic response. To hear him recount his version of how the COVID-19 outbreak was dealt with, however, one would think Fauci had little to no influence over any of the decision-making or the improvised science used to justify those decisions. Such was the case when the doctor appeared before the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on June 3.
It is difficult to forget the protracted fight over the origins of the virus that caused a virtual shutdown of the global economy. Every American remembers the lengths to which the leaders of the medical community and large swaths of the media went to persuade the nation that COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans in a so-called Chinese wet market. Alongside that narrative, an enormous amount of effort was expended trying to silence those who expressed a suspicion that this particular strain of COVID was developed in a Chinese virology lab and then escaped.
This latter theory of the virus’ origin has gained significant ground since the height of the pandemic. But there is still no denying that the powers-that-be wanted it suppressed. At his hearing, Fauci insisted he had nothing to do with the attempts to kill what became known as the “lab leak” theory. Still, the former NIAID director is on record supporting the animal-to-human transmission narrative. It seems unlikely that the doctor was unaware that differing voices were being ridiculed, shouted down, censored, and, in a few cases, even threatened. There is no public record of Fauci urging the so-called experts to keep an open mind about the origins of the virus. One could be forgiven for determining, then, that even if he personally did not direct the efforts to stifle the lab leak theory, his silence was a form of complicity.
Anthony Fauci and the Missing Science
When grilled about the heavy-handed methods used to supposedly slow the spread of the virus – the mask mandates, the social distancing rules, the school closures, and, of course, the vaccine mandates – Fauci again dodged responsibility. He is – or was – supposedly the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. In that capacity, Fauci had a duty to be honest with both the leaders of government he was advising and with the American people about individual precautions that are effective and those that are not.
Claiming, then, that the mass-masking, the vaccine mandates, the six-feet social distancing, and the closures of schools and businesses all originated from guidelines put out by the CDC and had nothing to do with him is feckless, to say the least. Neither back at the height of the pandemic nor today can Fauci point to any scientifically objective peer-reviewed studies that establish the effectiveness of mass-masking. Indeed, during a 60 Minutes interview in early 2020, he observed that, while wearing masks may well provide people with a false sense of security, it would have no meaningful effect on the spread of the virus. Less than a year later, however, Fauci was appearing in public wearing not just one but two masks. He knew the masks wouldn’t slow the infection rate of COVID-19. Yet, Fauci nevertheless committed himself to disseminating the unscientific notion that strapping a piece of fabric to one’s face would somehow block the passage of the microscopic droplets in which the virus traveled.
Rep. Michael Cloud (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Asked by Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) if there was any scientific evidence supporting mask mandates for children under the age of five, Fauci responded, “There was no study that did masks on kids before. You couldn’t do that study. You had to respond to an epidemic that was killing four to 5000 Americans a day.” Here is Fauci admitting that there was no scientific basis for forcing young children to wear masks.
The most astounding – some might even say the most outrageous – thing Fauci said during the June 3 hearing was that the unvaccinated are “probably” responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. “Probably” is a word few credible scientist would want to use during a science-based discussion. Fauci has no evidence to back up his claim – which, of course, is why he used that word. He vaguely referred to “analysis” in an attempt to confer some measure of credibility upon himself:
“[A]nd, you know, some have done studies, [vaccinologist] Peter Hotez has done an analysis of this, and shows that, in people who refuse to get vaccinated for any of a variety of reasons, [they are] probably responsible for an additional two to 300,000 deaths in this country.”
That’s some pretty flimsy evidence. Some people have done studies or analyses and have concluded a probability. Very scientific. Contrary to what the nation was told about the COVID vaccines, it is now widely accepted that the vaccinated were, in large part, as susceptible as the unvaccinated to contracting the virus and spreading it. Fauci’s claim, then, is little more than speculation – and rather tasteless speculation, at that — when one considers that he is virtually accusing the unvaccinated of mass murder with no supporting evidence.
Failed the American People
The American public was bullied into conforming to all kinds of new rules for social interaction – few of which appear to have had any measurable effect on the spread of COVID-19. It is certainly fair to say that Fauci commanded a great deal of respect – among most Americans – when it came to teaching them how to protect against the virus. Thus, he could have, and should have, spoken out against some of the more spurious rules by which people were told to live. Had he done so, people would have listened to him, and they would have believed him. And the country would have been spared a great deal of unnecessary drama. COVID-19, meanwhile, would have spread at just the same rate — no slower but also no quicker.
The closures of schools and businesses were all entirely unnecessary – and we know that now because we all saw how quickly the virus continued to spread even after these measures were put in place. The detrimental effects of those closures are still being felt today. Fauci was in a unique position back in 2020 to prevent all of that – even if it meant going against what the CDC was advising. Nobody cared about what the CDC was saying; as the public face of the government’s response to the pandemic, they wanted to know what Fauci had to say. But he said nothing. He walked around wearing his two masks, and with his silence – if nothing else – he tacitly put his stamp of approval on all of the anti-COVID measures and all the flawed science that was used to justify them.
