Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the Naitonal Institutes of Health, public domain
The COVID-19 pandemic flipped the world upside-down in 2020. We all remember it as a time of uncertainty, but we also all remember the government promptly providing guidelines for the sake of health and safety. Over the next two years, though, some of us began to recognize inconsistency or contradictions among some of these guidelines. This year, Dr. Fauci has finally started admitting some of the truths about COVID-19 and the government response that many conservatives had pointed out but were labeled conspiracy theorists for doing so.
In February, Dr. Fauci gave a 14-hour testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Dr. Fauci admitted to a few important facts during this testimony. In the first place, Dr. Fauci admitted that the six-foot social distancing rule was not grounded in science. Instead, the distance was arbitrary, and “sort of just appeared,” according to Fauci. He also did not permit proper pursuit and research into alternative treatments for the virus, nor did he give honest and clear guidelines about the efficacy of herd immunity or natural immunity.
Second, Dr. Fauci recognized that vaccine mandates backfired. The mandates eroded trust in public officials and did not have the intended effect. Dr. Pierre Kory wrote that “Fauci was right about one thing: the obsession with Covid vaccines undermined trust in public health authorities, which is crucial to any functioning society.”
One thing Dr. Fauci didn’t admit to, though was the impact that lockdowns had on child learning and development. He said that he was not convinced that the lockdowns hurt kids. Dr. Pierre Kory further wrote, “According to the federal government, reading test scores among nine-year-olds fell to their lowest point in 30 years, while math scores fell for the first time ever.”
The pandemic was a big and scary event, and it’s not surprising that public health officials may get some things wrong, but these officials also have to be willing to take an honest look at their mistakes. Such honesty is critical for proper government accountability.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/liberalism-and-conservatism/big-government/fauci-admits-to-covid-truths/
Phyllis Schlafly