In his inaugural address, President Biden pledged to “defend the truth and defeat the lies.”
So let’s start by being brutally honest about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been the source of some of the most damaging misinformation about COVID-19.
The nation of Biden’s best infectious disease expert and chief medical advisor is at the very least loose with the facts and is prone to change his mind.
This is the man who dictated coronavirus policies in the Trump administration. If mistakes were made, as the Biden government claims, those are Fauci’s.
Amazingly, Fauci told CNN on Friday that a “lack of candor” from the Trump administration had cost American lives.
But if people’s lives were really at stake last year, why did he wait until now to tell?
Scale it down to another handy lie from a common fighter, who has tricked us on everything from masks to herd immunity.
Even if you decide that these are not lies, but an error of judgment by Fauci, they could have had deadly consequences.
Take Fauci’s serenity on January 21 last year, for example, when he assured us that the virus then convulsing in China “is not something that citizens of the United States should be concerned about.”
To be fair, the pandemic didn’t notify many people, but the thing about Fauci is he’s always so sure of himself.
The following week, he was back at it, vehemently opposed to Donald Trump’s proposed flight ban from China, which Biden labeled “ xenophobia ” at the time.
It was January 28, and Trump had asked his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, to the Situation Room to convince Fauci and other officials that the travel ban in China would save lives.
“The man I fought the most that day was Fauci,” Navarro told me Sunday. “He was firmly against the travel ban. He kept saying travel restrictions don’t work. ”
Navarro pushed back, “‘If you stop 20,000 Chinese nationals every day and some are infected, are you telling me that’s not going to spread the virus?” It was like talking to a brick wall. ”
The next day, Navarro wrote a memo with three options: If you do nothing and there is no danger, that’s okay; if you do the travel ban and there is no danger, you will lose a few million dollars; but if you do nothing and there is danger, the risk is a million American lives and more than $ 2 trillion in damage.
“I have everyone in the workgroup with the memos. . . everyone supported the president, ”said Navarro.
Trump imposed the travel ban on Jan. 31, and Fauci later wrote that the move had saved lives.
But, says Navarro, “If Biden had been president and Fauci was the top advisor, we would probably kill one million more Americans.”
Then there was Fauci’s advice on masks.
In March, as the coronavirus was decimating New York, he told us masks were useless.
“Right now, people in the United States shouldn’t be wearing masks,” he told “60 Minutes.”
Three months later he did a backflip: “Masks work. . . to avoid infecting someone else. . . but it can also protect you to some extent. ”
Posing by his pool in sunglasses and new socks last June, Fauci told InStyle magazine he didn’t regret lying:
“We were told… we have a serious problem with the lack of PPE and masks for caregivers [and decided] we really need to save the masks for the people who need them most. ”
It was a noble lie, so he didn’t feel the need to apologize or even be a little ashamed.
But nothing undermined public confidence in medical experts at the height of the pandemic.
If Fauci lied about masks, what else would he lie about?
Turns out he lied about the herd’s immunity too.
In December, Fauci admitted to The New York Times that he had “slowly but deliberately moved the goalposts” based on the percentage of the population that needed to be vaccinated before “herd immunity” to COVID-19 was achieved.
When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I said herd immunity would cost 70 to 75 percent. When newer surveys said 60 percent or more would make it, I thought, ‘I can spice this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85, ” he said.
Fauci is not precise with numbers, which is strange for a scientist who claims to be giving facts.
For example, on Biden’s first day last week, Fauci said we “would have vaccinated 100 million people in the first 100 days” and specified that he meant both “primary and boost” shots, a total of 200 million shots in the arms.
On Sunday he had to “clarify that, because there was a little misunderstanding. What we’re talking about is 100 million shots in individuals. ”
The goal of 100 million is a fake anyway, since we’re already there. According to the Bloomberg News tracker, 912,000 shots were delivered per day in the week before the inauguration. On the inauguration day it was 1.6 million shots.
Fauci gushed last week about how “liberating” it was to work for Biden now. “One of the new things in this administration is: if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say you don’t know the answer. ”
That would suit Fauci, because to an expert he doesn’t seem to know the answer to anything.
Cuo’s ‘cocky’ pitcher
Gov. Andrew Cuomo was busy Friday with his favorite pastime, bragging.
“Never get cocky with COVID,” he said, proud of the catchy alliteration.
Earlier words were never spoken. I take credit for that quote. ”
Perhaps he should have taken his own advice before accepting an Emmy and writing a book congratulating himself on the worst COVID response in the country.
That’s what you call cocky, in every sense of the word.