The top official at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has admitted to federal lawmakers that the agency hid the early genomic sequences of COVID-19 that it had uncovered after Chinese scientists requested the move.
Acting director Lawrence Tabak told a House Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday that NIH “eliminated from public view” the data that had come from a lab in Wuhan, China, the city where the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 first emerged.
But Tabak said that &#8220;researchers can still access it via an archaic &#8216;tape drive,'&#8221; the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/nih-director-tabak-confirms-agency-hid-covid-genes-per-chinese/">reported</a>.
The admission followed a Vanity Fair <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/the-virus-hunting-nonprofit-at-the-center-of-the-lab-leak-controversy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> that traced an evolutionary biologist named Jesse D. Bloom&#8217;s actions as he tried to &#8220;dig deep and discover the truth.&#8221; Bloom wrote a scientific paper and gave it to top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, setting off a firestorm.
&#8220;Bloom’s paper was the product of detective work he’d undertaken after noticing that a number of early SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences mentioned in a published paper from China had somehow vanished without a trace,&#8221; Vanity Fair reported. &#8220;The sequences, which map the nucleotides that give a virus its unique genetic identity, are key to tracking when the virus emerged and how it might have evolved. In Bloom’s view, their disappearance raised the possibility that the Chinese government might be trying to hide evidence about the pandemic’s early spread.&#8221;
&#8220;Piecing together clues, Bloom established that the NIH itself had deleted the sequences from its own archive at the request of researchers in Wuhan. Now, he was hoping Fauci and his boss, NIH director Francis Collins, could help him identify other deleted sequences that might shed light on the mystery,&#8221; the magazine wrote.
In the House hearing, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) asked Tabek why U.S. health officials would comply with China&#8217;s request to hide the genomic sequences.
“There’s no question that the communication that we had about the sequence archive — Sequence Read Archive — could have been improved. I freely admit that,” Tabek said. “If I may, the archive never deleted the sequence, it just did not make it available for interrogation.”
But he added that researchers can still get to the original sequences if they so desire.
It&#8217;s not the first scandal about the Wuhan lab. Documents published in September by The Intercept revealed that U.S. health officials indirectly funded so-called &#8220;gain of function&#8221; research at the Wuhan lab — including the modification of three bat coronaviruses distinct from COVID-19 and the discovery that they became much more infectious among “humanized” mice when human-type receptors were added to them. U.S. officials have denied the funding went to &#8220;gain of function&#8221; research.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Covid-19 Omicron sign

NIH Director Admits Agency Concealed Early COVID Genomic Sequences At Request Of Chinese Scientists

National Institutes Of Health Director Admits Agency Concealed Early COVID Genomic Sequences At Request Of Chinese Scientists

Anthony Fauci

Francis Collins

Wuhan

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-fauci">Anthony Fauci</a>, Francis Collins and other bigwigs at the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-in-leaked-audio-former-nih-director-new-biden-science-adviser-laughs-over-threatening-unemployment-to-force-vaccines-blames-trump-for-covid-19-deaths">National Institutes of Health</a> reaped more than $350 million in secretive &#8220;royalty&#8221; payments from drug companies and other third parties over a 10-year period, according to an <a href="https://www.openthebooks.com/substack-investigation-faucis-royalties-and-the-350-million-royalty-payment-stream-hidden-by-nih/">explosive new report</a> from a watchdog organization.
The report from <a href="https://www.openthebooks.com">OpenTheBooks.com</a> said the royalty payments, including at least 23 to Fauci and 14 to his former boss, Collins, were paid out between 2010 and 2020. Government scientists got the payments for being credited as &#8220;co-inventors&#8221; of various treatments and pharmaceutical products, according to the report.
&#8220;Because those payments enrich the agency and its scientists, each and every royalty payment could be a potential conflict of interest and needs disclosure,&#8221; OpenTheBooks.com co-founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski wrote. &#8220;NIH is a revolving door of tens of billions of dollars in government grant-making coupled with hundreds of millions of dollars in private – non-transparent – royalty payments.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AdamAndrzejewski?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AdamAndrzejewski</a> for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OpenTheBooks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OpenTheBooks</a> at Substack: &quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Fauci?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Fauci</a>’s Royalties And The $350 Million Royalty Payment Stream HIDDEN By <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NIH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NIH</a>&quot; ( <a href="https://t.co/8znBqaxIMh">https://t.co/8znBqaxIMh</a> ) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AnthonyFauci?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AnthonyFauci</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FrancisCollins?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FrancisCollins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CliffordLane?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CliffordLane</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NIAID?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NIAID</a>
&mdash; Προμηθεύς (@_Prometeusz_) <a href="https://twitter.com/_Prometeusz_/status/1523998600056868867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The report paints an incestuous picture of the NIH doling out $30 billion a year in grants to some 56,000 recipients in Big Pharma, research institutes and other entities, with money flowing back to the secretive agency&#8217;s scientists and senior management in the form of huge royalty payments. It is not yet known how much the payments to Fauci, who is the U.S. government highest-salaried employee at $456,028, totaled.
&#8220;Since the NIH documents are heavily redacted, we can only see how many payments each scientist received, and, separately, the aggregate dollars per NIH agency,&#8221; Andrzejewski wrote.&#8221; This is a gatekeeping at odds with the spirit and perhaps the letter of open-records laws.&#8221;
In addition to his salary and whatever royalty payments he has received, Fauci last year won a $1 million prize <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2022/01/15/disclosures-released-dr-fauci-household-profits-exceeded-17-million-in-2020--included-income-royalties-travel-perks-and-investment-gains/?sh=1acaeb8f7d5f" rel="">from the Dan David Foundation</a> for “speaking truth to power.”
<div id="attachment_379954" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-379954" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-379954 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/GettyImages-1228425162-864x576.jpg" alt="Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, is one of several current and former NIH officials who received &quot;royalty&quot; payments, according to OpenTheBooks.com." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/05/GettyImages-1228425162-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/05/GettyImages-1228425162-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/05/GettyImages-1228425162-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/05/GettyImages-1228425162.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Former NIH boss Francis Collins allegedly received royalty payments from third parties. (Greg Nash- Pool/Getty Images)</div>
Collins resigned as NIH director in December after leading the agency for 12 years. Fauci is the longtime head of NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and also serves as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.
OpenTheBooks.com made the $350 million estimate by extrapolating from documents received as part of a federal lawsuit against NIH. So far, the group has uncovered evidence of more than 22,100 royalty payments totaling nearly $134 million paid from 2009-2014 to 1,700 NIH scientists. The group is awaiting another 1,800 pages of royalty disclosures which would cover the period from 2015-2020.
The NIH has resisted turning over information, treating the royalty payments like &#8220;a state secret,&#8221; according to Andrzejewski. The agency ignored OpenTheBooks.com&#8217;s Freedom of Information Act request, forcing the group to go to court with Judicial Watch, he said. Once in court, the NIH slow-walked production of documents it was ordered to hand over, and redacted key information, he said.
Under court order, the NIH has agreed to produce 300 pages a month, but insisted on producing documents related to Fauci last &#8211; sometime in November, according to Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.
The Associated Press reported on the NIH&#8217;s royalty database and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/story/govt-scientists-must-now-disclose-financial-stakes" rel="">found 900</a> scientists collected nearly $9 million in royalties 16 years ago. That report also determined some 51 NIH scientists who were paid royalties worked on experiments involving inventions for which they were already being paid. Among them was Fauci, who received $45,072.82 between 1997 and 2004 for a patent license on an experimental AIDS treatment that was funded with a $36 million NIH grant.
But Andrzejewski said the agency has become &#8220;a lot more secretive&#8221; since the AP report.
&#8220;When a federal bureaucrat pops up on television giving us health instructions, who has paid them and for what research and technology?&#8221; Andrzejewski asked. &#8220;When a patient agrees to a clinical trial or experimental treatment, what financial interests are involved?&#8221;

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Fauci, Collins Shared In ‘Secret’ NIH ‘Royalties’ Totaling $350M: Watchdog Report

Fauci, Collins Shared In Secret NIH 'Royalties' Totaling $350M: Watchdog Report

COVID-19

Judicial Watch

When COVID-19 first came ashore in America — long before scientists really knew anything about the coronavirus — the top brains said in one breathless voice: Wash your hands!
The big dogs said wash, wash, wash, maybe wear gloves, don’t touch your face, blah blah blah. Yeah, no. Turns out there’s almost no surface transmission of COVID-19. Nearly none.
Now, you would think that the smart people running things (they must be smart ’cause they’re running things, right?) would’ve said, “Hang on, let’s study this thing first, collect some data, and then come up with some conclusions and courses of action.”
But no, instead, everyone was saying everything all at the same time — and the mainstream media was laughing all the way to the bank. “It turns out the pandemic is a pretty big part of the news cycle and that’s not going away anytime soon,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said in March 2021. “It turns out it’s really good for ratings.”
If it bleeds it leads, amirite?
Before the fact-checkers get their undies in a wad, let’s be clear: COVID-19 was pretty bad (for old and fat people and those with comorbidities). It did kill 993,996 Americans as of Tuesday (and if you’re keeping score at home, 596,599 came on President Biden’s watch).
For the record, 925,931 of those deaths were people 50 years old and older. And if you go “classic old” (65 and above), it turns out nearly 7 in 10 deaths (74.4) were in that age bracket. So yes, mostly “old” people.
So it’s bad, but eh, not that bad. There are 320 million people in America, so we’re talking less than a third of 1%. For comparison, COVID-19 has killed 6.3 million people worldwide; the 1918 influenza pandemic killed at least 50 million, with some estimates running as high as 100 million.
But let’s get to the real Debbie Downer of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. immunologist.
Back in March 2020, Fauci declared, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
“When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is,” the doctor said on CBS News.
Yeah, so, wrong. Turns out it’s mostly airborne.
Then this in January 2021, Fauci said wearing two masks is likely more effective than wearing one. “If you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on it, just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective,” he told NBC News.
Duh. Wrong again. In fact, mask-wearing has been proven to be barely effective, especially with the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/01/05/cloth-masks-not-effective-omicron-covid/9091574002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omicron variant</a>.
Jump to last week. Fauci declared on Tuesday that the “pandemic phase” is over. But that was refuted the next day — by Fauci. Yup, the doc walked it all back — maybe after a miffed Biden got to him — and said, “by no means does that mean the pandemic is over.”
Then this: Fauci announced on Thursday he would not attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which was held Saturday. Fauci was invited by ABC News “and had planned on going,” CNN reported, but he “decided to abandon those plans and inform ABC that he would no longer attend because of an individual assessment of his own personal risk.”
Yup, 2,500 people in a room is too scary for the immunologist — but that didn’t keep him from attending the swanky white-tie Gridiron gala last month.
Forget all that. You’re in the Fauci Vortex, where up is down.
Finally, (hypocrisy alert) a maskless Fauci was photographed attending a packed pre-dinner brunch on Saturday afternoon. And we’ve been to that brunch in years past — it’s packed to the gills. In fact, Fauci was snapped schmoozing it up all over the brunch, all with maskless garden party goers. He do get around, don’t he?
And now, after all that, Fauci is back to his doomsday predictions about another wave of death and destruction from whatever variant is out there now.
Comedian David Spade summed it all up in a show he did Sunday just outside Washington. Speaking as Fauci, he warned, “We have no data now, but it’s gonna be worse! It’s gonna be worse than Rocky 5!”
Now that we all know just what a hypocrite Fauci is, the question must be asked: When will he just go away? He’s 81, the highest-paid employee in the entire federal government (he gets more than the president), and he keeps getting everything wrong — and not practicing what he preaches, just like all Democrats have done from the beginning.
It’s time to go, Dr. Grouchy. We’re finally — finally — onto you.
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at josephcurl@dailywire.com and on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/josephcurl">@JosephCurl</a>. A version of this article ran previously in The Washington Times.

New York Yankees v Washington Nationals

CURL: Fauci Finally Exposed As The Hypocrite He Truly Is

Dr. Anthony Fauci Exposed As Hypocrite Over White House Correspondents’ Garden Party

COVID-19 Vaccine

Face Masks

White House Correspondents Association

White House Correspondents’ Dinner

This last week found a guy with billions of dollars at his fingertips seeking to control the message. No, not Elon Musk — President Joe Biden. 
Just as the billionaire entrepreneur moved to take over Twitter, Biden created the Orwellian-named &#8220;Disinformation Governance Board,&#8221; which (trust us) is going to ferret out misinformation and feed you all the yummy Soylent Green you need. Musk summed up America&#8217;s sentiment in a single word: &#8220;Discomforting.&#8221; 
Meanwhile, top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci said the U.S. is through the &#8220;pandemic phase,&#8221; only to be refuted by none other than top immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said, yeah, no. And Biden stumbled into the headlines by telling teachers that children are &#8220;yours when they&#8217;re in the classroom.&#8221; (Will we ever get rid of those pesky parents?!) Oh, Joe. 
Here&#8217;s your latest installment of Washington Wire.
Biden&#8217;s Orwellian Maneuver
President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working to create a “Disinformation Governance Board” to counter what they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-federal-censorship-coming-biden-admin-creating-disinformation-governance-board-report">determine to be false information</a> relating to national security.
On Wednesday, Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/04/27/fauci-pulls-out-of-whcd-is-biden-next-00028131">reported</a> that DHS is creating the board “to coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.”
While Russia has certainly been guilty of putting out disinformation around the globe, American intelligence officials have also labeled factual information — like Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” — as Russian propaganda as well. Even the mainstream media now admit that the contents of that laptop were real.
Nina Jankowicz will now reportedly head the new DHS board as executive director. Jankowicz was one of the prominent liberals who appears to believe that the laptop was Russian disinformation.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-leader-kevin-mccarthy-torches-biden-over-admins-new-orwellian-disinformation-governance-board">saying</a> that the move was “Orwellian.”
“Leave it to Democrats to think free speech is the problem and more government is the solution,” McCarthy said in an exclusive statement to The Daily Wire. “The notion that the same party that spent four years promoting the Russia collusion hoax, suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, and equated parents to domestic terrorists believes it has the credibility to tell Americans what is true is laughable.”
“And it is telling that the person who would run Biden’s Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board is a political activist who has a long history of falling for and spreading disinformation,” McCarthy continued. 
“It is easy to imagine this person abusing the term ‘disinformation’ to suppress facts and spin away inconvenient truths about the administration’s many failures, including their failures to secure the border. The idea that the federal government should control speech sounds uncomfortably close to the Thought Police. Biden must immediately abandon his plan to create a modern-day Ministry of Truth,&#8221; he said.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) called for the immediate dissolution of the board in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dissolve-this-monstrosity-immediately-josh-hawley-unloads-on-mayorkas-in-letter-demanding-the-end-of-disinformation-board">scathing letter</a> directed to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Hawley tweeted screenshots of the letter, dated April 28, on Thursday morning with the following caption: “The Administration that activated the FBI against parents at school board meetings now has created a government Disinformation Board to monitor all Americans’ speech. It’s a disgrace. Joe Biden &amp; Secretary Mayorkas: dissolve this monstrosity immediately.”
And then, billionaire and newly-minted social media mogul Elon Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-weighs-in-on-bidens-misinformation-governance-board">weighed in</a>. 
“The government is creating a misinformation governance board,” comedian and conservative host Steven Crowder tweeted Thursday. “Who else did something like that? Oh I remember, the Nazi’s. And there’s some data showing some interesting things going on post-[Elon Musk]’s Twitter takeover!”
“Discomforting,” Musk directly replied to the tweet.
Fauci&#8217;s Doublespeak
Top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-pandemic-phase-of-covid-19-over-fauci-no-it-isnt">declared</a> last Tuesday that the “pandemic phase” of COVID-19 is over in the U.S.
But that was refuted on Wednesday — by top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.
On Tuesday, Fauci sat down with Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour,” who asked Fauci: “Here we are. It’s the end of April. It’s the spring of 2022. How close are we to the end of the pandemic?”
“We are certainly, right now, in this country out of the pandemic phase,” Fauci replied. “Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.”
“So, if you’re saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are,” he added.
But on Wednesday, Fauci walked it all back.
“We are in a different moment of the pandemic,” Fauci told the Associated Press on Wednesday. While the U.S. has “decelerated and transitioned into more of a controlled phase” of the virus, he added “by no means does that mean the pandemic is over.”
Despite Fauci&#8217;s original assertion that the pandemic is over, CNN reported that he has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-says-the-pandemic-phase-is-over-but-its-still-too-risky-for-him-to-attend-white-house-correspondents-dinner">backed out of plans</a> to attend the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — which he was scheduled to attend as a guest of ABC News.
“He recently decided to abandon those plans and inform ABC that he would no longer attend because of an individual assessment of his own personal risk,” CNN reported.
In one other COVID-19 development, it turns out most of us have already had it — whether we know it or not.
A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that a majority of Americans, both adults and children, have been infected with COVID-19.
Nearly 60% of adults and about 75% of children have coronavirus antibodies, indicating that they had been infected with COVID-19 and its variants, according to data collected from a study of blood samples across the country. That’s a huge rise from December 2021, when just 34% of Americans had COVID-19 antibodies.
The Ministry of (Un)truth
Biden on Wednesday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-speech-honoring-gender-race-teacher-biden-tells-conservatives-to-stop-making-teachers-the-target-of-the-culture-wars">accused conservatives</a> of making teachers a “target of the culture wars” as he honored an Ohio educator who teaches high schoolers about race, gender, and oppression.
“Teaching is one of the hardest jobs in this country,” Biden said. “Today, there are too many politicians trying to score political points trying to ban books—even math books. I mean, did you ever think… that when you’d be teaching you’d be worrying about book burnings and banning books? All because it doesn’t fit somebody’s political agenda.”
“American teachers have dedicated their lives to teaching our children and lifting them up,” he said. “We ought to stop making them a target of the culture wars. That’s where this is going.”
Then Biden went further, repeatedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-tells-teachers-children-are-yours-when-theyre-in-the-classroom">telling the teachers</a> gathered at the White House that school children are “like yours when they’re in the classroom.”
“They’re not someone else’s children, they’re our children,” he said. “And they are the kite strings that literally lift our national ambitions aloft… Think about it. If you got to do one thing to make sure the nation succeeded in the next two generations, what would you do? I would say, literally, have the best-educated public in the world.”
Biden emphasized that “we have an obligation to help them… reach their potential.”
“You have heard me say it many times about our children, but it is true, they’re all our children. And the reason you are the teachers of the year is because you recognize that,” he said. “They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”

Washington Wire 5/2/22

Biden’s Orwellian Maneuver

Biden's Orwellian Maneuver, Fauci's Doublespeak, And The Ministry Of (Un)Truth

Joe Biden

Readers Pass

Washington D.C.

Washington Wire

Shortly after top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci said the &#8220;pandemic phase&#8221; of COVID-19 was over in the U.S., he came out and said it wasn&#8217;t over.
With the matter settled, Fauci then decided to cancel his attendance at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Association Dinner, which was held Saturday. Fauci was invited by ABC News &#8220;and had planned on going,&#8221; CNN <a href="https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/16510303831227820c4875e4e/raw?utm_term=16510303831227820c4875e4e&amp;utm_source=cnn_Reliable+Sources+-+April+26%2C+2022&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;bt_ee=8qqKKvrHJ68vjOm8u8QM7gdIR1dQdFJx81VwJuq%2B4IZDpskI6P1lU93P3S0CdV52&amp;bt_ts=1651030383125">reported</a>, but he &#8220;decided to abandon those plans and inform ABC that he would no longer attend because of an individual assessment of his own personal risk.&#8221;
The annual bash, which draws politicos and journalists to the Washington Hilton, went on as scheduled, with nearly all of the 2,500 attendees packed in a ballroom going maskless.
Fauci&#8217;s decision to avoid the swanky event came after another similar fete, the annual Gridiron Dinner held last month, turned out to be a super spreader, with more than 80 attendees coming down with the virus. Fauci attended that affair but apparently had second thoughts about packing into a room with a bunch of unmasked people.
Or did he?
A maskless Fauci was photographed attending a packed pre-dinner brunch on Saturday afternoon.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/donlemon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@donlemon</a>, Dr. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TonyFauci?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TonyFauci</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/CapehartJ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CapehartJ</a> at the 2022 White House Correspondents&#39; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GardenBrunch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GardenBrunch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/whca?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@whca</a> <a href="https://t.co/JmRkVZo0rq">pic.twitter.com/JmRkVZo0rq</a>
&mdash; White House Insider (@whcinsider) <a href="https://twitter.com/whcinsider/status/1520537499143221250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hundreds attended the brunch, according to one report.
&#8220;At the 27th Annual White House Correspondents’ Weekend Garden Brunch, the most buzzworthy attendee was Anthony Fauci, who said earlier this week that he would not attend the dinner over Covid concerns,&#8221; Twitchy <a href="https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2022/05/01/the-whca-dinner-was-too-dangerous-for-dr-fauci-but-not-the-outdoor-garden-party-that-sure-looks-a-lot-like-it-was-inside-at-times-a/">reported</a>.
Fauci even did an interview in which he (kinda) said it was all over while saying &#8220;we still gotta&#8217; be careful.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dr. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TonyFauci?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TonyFauci</a> is glad to see people coming out after a stressful two and a half years and doing so safely. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GardenBrunch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GardenBrunch</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/whca?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@whca</a> <a href="https://t.co/HfbyEQfzae">pic.twitter.com/HfbyEQfzae</a>
&mdash; White House Insider (@whcinsider) <a href="https://twitter.com/whcinsider/status/1520547344617517056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had some fun on Twitter.
&#8220;Fauci bailed on attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because of &#8216;individual assessment of my personal risk.&#8217; &#8230;so he just went to the crowed (sic) pre-parties,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Fauci bailed on attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because of “individual assessment of my personal risk.&quot; …..so he just went to the crowed pre-parties <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WHCD?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WHCD</a> <a href="https://t.co/OEkX9OuYHL">pic.twitter.com/OEkX9OuYHL</a>
&mdash; Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/1520823849805307904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last Tuesday, Fauci declared the &#8220;pandemic phase&#8221; of COVID-19 is over.
But that was refuted on Wednesday — by Fauci.
On Tuesday, Fauci sat down with Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour,&#8221; who asked Fauci: &#8220;Here we are. It’s the end of April. It’s the spring of 2022. How close are we to the end of the pandemic?”
“We are certainly, right now, in this country out of the pandemic phase,” Fauci <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/fauci-says-the-pandemic-phase-is-over-but-its-still-too-risky-for-him-to-attend-white-house-correspondents-dinner/">replied</a>. “Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.&#8221;
“So, if you’re saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are,” he added.
Well, that&#8217;s pretty clear.
But on Wednesday, Fauci walked it all back.
“We are in a different moment of the pandemic,” Fauci told the Associated Press. While the U.S. has “decelerated and transitioned into more of a controlled phase” of the virus, he added &#8220;by no means does that mean the pandemic is over.&#8221;
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

27th Annual White House Correspondents’ Weekend Garden Brunch

Dr. Hypocrite: Fauci Stays Away From Big Media Dinner, Attends Packed Media Party

Dr. Anthony Fauci Stays Away From White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Attends Packed Media Party At Garden Brunch

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) made it clear once again that he had no use for Dr. Anthony Fauci, who still serves as President Joe Biden&#8217;s chief medical advisor.
DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lapado joined Fox News host Laura Ingraham for a town hall event that aired on Thursday evening, and neither had anything nice to say about Fauci — particularly with regard to his recent comments about COVID-19.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
DeSantis wants to give Fauci the boot. <a href="https://t.co/bXFzz9mWwR">pic.twitter.com/bXFzz9mWwR</a>
&mdash; Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) <a href="https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1520077197762957312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Anthony Fauci, he&#8217;s a deity to the Democrats,&#8221; Ingraham began, directing the question to Lapado first. &#8220;But even god is having trouble kind of getting his story straight on whether the pandemic is mostly over or not. Your response to the latest flip-flop by the great doctor.&#8221;
&#8220;You know, it&#8217;s funny you bring that up, Laura, because I was reading that today,&#8221; Lapado replied. &#8220;It was — it&#8217;s over, yesterday I think. Today, oh, it&#8217;s still on, you know, and we&#8217;ll see what tomorrow brings. But this is really the kind of inconsistency that has really fueled the distrust for public health officials — and it is well-earned and well-deserved.&#8221;
Lapado was referring to several interviews Fauci gave earlier in the week — specifically when he <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/fauci-says-the-pandemic-phase-is-over-but-its-still-too-risky-for-him-to-attend-white-house-correspondents-dinner/">told</a> PBS &#8220;Newshour&#8221; host Judy Woodruff that the United States was &#8220;out of the pandemic phase&#8221; only to <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/fauci-pandemic-phase-of-covid-19-over-fauci-no-it-isnt/">say a day later</a> that the pandemic was certainly not over telling The Washington Post, &#8220;The world is still in a pandemic. There’s no doubt about that. Don’t anybody get any misinterpretation of that.&#8221;
Lapado went on to say that the inconsistencies also included the officials&#8217; waffling position on masking – particularly their insistence that people continue to wear them despite multiple assessments suggesting they were <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/cnn-medical-expert-doubles-down-that-cloth-masks-were-never-appropriate-for-covid-19/">not effective</a>.
Ingraham pivoted to DeSantis then, noting that President Biden was <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-to-attend-white-house-correspondents-dinner-possibly-wear-mask-fauci-to-skip/">planning to attend</a> the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner in spite of a spate of cases of COVID-19 in vaccinated and boosted individuals — and DeSantis pointed out the irony of Biden&#8217;s administration simultaneously <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/breaking-biden-admin-to-appeal-court-decision-that-ruled-mask-mandate-on-airplanes-was-unlawful/">fighting in court</a> to reinstate the mask mandate for air travel.
DeSantis then interrupted Ingraham&#8217;s line of questioning to announce that Lapado was the &#8220;Anti-Fauci.&#8221;
&#8220;I tell him, &#8216;You know what? I don&#8217;t always see what you do day to day, but if you&#8217;re being attacked by NBC and CNN, I know you&#8217;re doing a helluva job,'&#8221; DeSantis said, and the audience cheered and applauded.
Ingraham concluded the segment with one more question for DeSantis: &#8220;Will they ever retire Dr. Fauci?&#8221;
&#8220;You know — If I had my druthers, you know, you take him and you chuck him across the Potomac,&#8221; DeSantis said — and the audience roared again.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Campaigns With Senate Candidate Adam Laxalt In Nevada

‘If I Had My Druthers …’: Ron DeSantis Knows Exactly What He’d Do With Dr. Anthony Fauci

Ron DeSantis Wants To Give Dr. Fauci The Axe

Laura Ingraham

Ron DeSantis

Top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci declared on Tuesday that the &#8220;pandemic phase&#8221; of COVID-19 is over.
But that was refuted on Wednesday — by top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.
On Tuesday, Fauci sat down with Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour,&#8221; who asked Fauci: &#8220;Here we are. It’s the end of April. It’s the spring of 2022. How close are we to the end of the pandemic?”
“We are certainly, right now, in this country out of the pandemic phase,” Fauci <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/fauci-says-the-pandemic-phase-is-over-but-its-still-too-risky-for-him-to-attend-white-house-correspondents-dinner/">replied</a>. “Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.&#8221;
“So, if you’re saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are,” he added.
Well, that&#8217;s pretty clear.
But on Wednesday, Fauci walked it all back.
“We are in a different moment of the pandemic,” Fauci told the Associated Press on Wednesday. While the U.S. has “decelerated and transitioned into more of a controlled phase” of the virus, he added &#8220;by no means does that mean the pandemic is over.&#8221;
Gotcha. We are &#8220;out of the pandemic phase,&#8221; but &#8220;by no means does that mean that the pandemic is over.&#8221; That&#8217;s clear, right?
Fauci did more damage control Wednesday, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/04/27/pandemic-phase-over-fauci-covid/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">telling</a> The Washington Post: “The world is still in a pandemic. There’s no doubt about that. Don’t anybody get any misinterpretation of that.”
The White House circled the wagons around the 81-year-old Fauci, with Press Secretary Jen Psaki explaining why emergency measures would still be necessary given that Fauci said the “pandemic phase” is over.
“Well, what Dr. Fauci was saying is that we are in a different phase of this pandemic, and that’s absolutely true,” Psaki said. “We also know COVID isn’t over and the pandemic isn’t over,” she added, contradicting what Fauci had said the day before.
Psaki also said that Americans are still catching the virus and “we have measures that we should all continue to take to protect ourselves.&#8221;
Fauci has walked back declarations before. Last year, Fauci said Americans might need a booster shot to be considered “fully vaccinated,” only to say a few days later an extra jab <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/11/21/fauci-fully-vaccinated-doesnt-have-to-include-boosters/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wasn&#8217;t necessary</a> to earn that status.
And in August 2021, Fauci <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/23/1030430529/dr-fauci-weighs-in-on-the-fdas-approval-of-the-pfizer-vaccine" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> NPR if enough Americans get vaccinated, the country could “really get some good control over this” by fall or winter 2022.
But later the same day, this time on CNN, Fauci said it won’t take that long. &#8220;I have to apologize. When I listened to the tape, I meant to say the spring of 2022, so I did misspeak,” he said. “I didn’t mean the fall — I misspoke. My bad.”
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

Fauci: ‘Pandemic Phase’ Of COVID-19 Over; Fauci: No It Isn’t!

Jen Psaki

Pandemic

The Nerd Prom is Saturday, and this time the Top Nerd will be there.
The White House Correspondents&#8217; Association (WHCA) dinner in Washington, D.C., draws some 2,500 elite politicians and journalists for a black-tie dinner and some comedy. The event has long leaned far-left, which is why former President Donald Trump never attended during his four years in office.
But President Joe Biden, even at 79, is ready to party.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday confirmed that Biden will be attending the dinner at the Washington Hilton, where former President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
&#8220;He has made the decision that he wants to attend, in a safe way, the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner to show his support, showcase his support for a free press,&#8221; Psaki said.
As is often the case, Psaki couldn&#8217;t help but take a jab at Trump.
&#8220;That does stand in stark contrast to his predecessor, who not only questioned the legitimacy of the press on a nearly daily basis, but also never attended the dinner, I don&#8217;t believe,&#8221; the press secretary added. &#8220;So he felt that was important and made a risk assessment to do that in consultation with his doctors and healthcare team.&#8221;
Psaki said Biden will possibly wear a mask and won&#8217;t be there while everyone is eating. &#8220;And we also took steps, including the fact that he&#8217;s not attending for the eating portion of the dinner,&#8221; Psaki said. &#8220;And he&#8217;ll be there for the program, which includes a number of speakers, the presentation of scholarships, as you know, and of course his speaking and his roasting &#8211; where he will be on the menu, as he likes to say &#8211; [Daily Show host] Trevor Noah is speaking.&#8221;
Meanwhile, top U.S. immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci decided not to attend the Saturday night event over COVID-19 concerns. Fauci attended the April 2 Gridiron Dinner, which turned out to be a superspreader event, with around 80 of the 600 attendees catching the virus.
Among the top officials to contract the virus were Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and several lawmakers.
And Democrats are putting in place policies on masks, testing, and vaccine cards. The WHCA dinner is going a step further than the Gridiron Club &#8212; which required only that guests show a vaccine card &#8212; by requiring attendees take a COVID-19 test 24 hours before the dinner and show a negative result. All guests must also be vaccinated or have a doctor&#8217;s excuse.
Biden on Wednesday also attended the packed funeral at the National Cathedral of the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and is scheduled to travel to Minnesota on Sunday for the funeral of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Vice President Kamala Harris is not likely to attend the WHCA dinner, having announced earlier this week that she has COVID-19.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

President Biden

Biden To Attend White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Possibly Wear Mask; Fauci To Skip

Dr. Anthony Fauci conceded this week that the U.S. &#8220;pandemic phase&#8221; was over with regard to COVID-19 — but that apparently is not enough to convince the president&#8217;s Chief Medical Advisor that it&#8217;s safe enough to attend the upcoming White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner.
Fauci joined host Judy Woodruff on &#8220;PBS Newshour,&#8221; and told her that the United States was finally out of the <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/economist-politicians-panicking-they-will-suddenly-lack-a-podium-from-which-to-grandstand-if-covid-becomes-endemic/">COVID-19</a> &#8220;pandemic phase.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
JUST IN: Dr. Anthony Fauci tells our <a href="https://twitter.com/JudyWoodruff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JudyWoodruff</a> the U.S. is &quot;out of the pandemic phase.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/x2wbLMyl6O">https://t.co/x2wbLMyl6O</a> <a href="https://t.co/xA71jE4Fuv">pic.twitter.com/xA71jE4Fuv</a>
&mdash; PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/1519079553527861248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Here we are, the end of April, the Spring of 2022. How close are we to the end of this pandemic?&#8221; Woodruff asked.
&#8220;Well, that’s an unanswerable question for the following reason, and I don’t want to be evasive about it, but let me tell you why I’m giving you that answer,&#8221; Fauci began. &#8220;We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase, namely we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.&#8221;
&#8220;So, if you’re saying if we are out of the pandemic phase in this country? We are. What we hope to do, I don’t believe I’ve spoken about this widely, we’re not going to eradicate this virus,&#8221; Fauci continued, saying that keeping the level low might require <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/spectacular-and-deadly-failure-msnbc-host-blames-biden-for-low-covid-booster-rates/">additional vaccine boosters</a> over time.
&#8220;That might be every year, it might be longer in order to keep the level low. But right now we are not in the pandemic phase in this country,&#8221; he concluded.
Despite that assessment, however, <a href="https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/16510303831227820c4875e4e/raw?utm_term=16510303831227820c4875e4e&amp;utm_source=cnn_Reliable+Sources+-+April+26%2C+2022&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;bt_ee=8qqKKvrHJ68vjOm8u8QM7gdIR1dQdFJx81VwJuq%2B4IZDpskI6P1lU93P3S0CdV52&amp;bt_ts=1651030383125">CNN reported</a> that Fauci has backed out of plans to attend the upcoming White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner — which he was scheduled to attend as a guest of ABC News.
&#8220;He recently decided to abandon those plans and inform ABC that he would no longer attend because of an individual assessment of his own personal risk,&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy reported.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

Top Health Officials Testify Before Senate Hearing

Fauci Says U.S. ‘Pandemic Phase’ Is Over — But It’s Still Too Risky For Him to Attend White House Correspondents Dinner

COVID-19 is an odd virus; if you catch it, it can kill you, or you might never even know you had it.
A new <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e3.htm?s_cid=mm7117e3_w">study</a> released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that a majority of Americans, both adults and children, have been infected with COVID-19.
Nearly 60% of adults and about 75% of children have coronavirus antibodies, indicating that they had been infected with COVID-19 and its variants, according to data collected from a study of blood samples across the country. That&#8217;s a huge rise from December 2021, when just 34% of Americans had COVID-19 antibodies.
“As of February 2022, approximately 75% of children and adolescents had serologic evidence of previous infection with SARS-CoV-2, with approximately one third becoming newly seropositive since December 2021,” the report says.
But researchers aren&#8217;t sure how long those antibodies are effective in keeping people from catching the virus or one of its variants a second time.
&#8220;We still do not know how long infection-induced immunity will last, and we cannot know from the study, again, whether all people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies continue to have protection from their prior infection,&#8221; <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/26/health/covid-americans-cdc-study/index.html">said</a> Dr. Kristie Clarke, who led the study for the CDC.
The number of immune Americans is even higher when you throw in those who have been vaccinated.
One scientific model for COVID-19 cases released in February estimated that some 73% of Americans were currently immune to Omicron, according to a report.
“About half of eligible Americans have received booster shots, there have been nearly 80 million confirmed infections overall and many more infections have never been reported,” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-united-states-3e7ab3f74080bac8480aa6de3e65ecce">according</a> to the Associated Press.
“We have changed,” Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington, told the wire service. “We have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it.”
“‘I am optimistic even if we have a surge in summer, cases will go up, but hospitalizations and deaths will not,’ said Mokdad, who works on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model, which calculated the 73% figure for The Associated Press,” the AP wrote.
But the once dreamed-about idea of “herd immunity” — when enough of a population has been exposed to a single virus and built up immunity, which eventually ends its spread — does not seem possible as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, keeps mutating into different variants. Omicron is the latest, but while it is more infectious, data shows that the strain is far less lethal.
The new numbers mean America is approaching &#8220;herd immunity,&#8221; even as some researchers say the virus is here to stay. Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. immunologist, put the number at 60% to 70%, but later started upping that number, saying in an <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/16/cnbc-transcript-dr-anthony-fauci-speaks-with-cnbcs-meg-tirrell-live-during-the-cnbc-healthy-returns-livestream-today.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview</a> with CNBC News that it would be “75, 80, 85 percent.”
But by May 2021, experts began saying we may never reach herd immunity. “Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/reaching-herd-immunity-is-unlikely-in-the-u-s-experts-now-believe/">reported</a>.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

Woman erasing red COVID-19 virus with paint roller

Most Americans Have Been Infected With COVID-19, Even If They Didn’t Know It, New CDC Study Finds

Immunity

Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested Thursday that a court did not have the authority to strike down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&#8217;s (CDC) mask mandate.
The comments from the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases come after a federal judge, appointed by former President Donald Trump, ruled Monday that the mask requirement was “unlawful,&#8221; prompting a slew of airlines to drop their mask mandates.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-federal-judge-in-florida-voids-bidens-national-mask-mandate-at-airports-planes-public-transit">said</a> Monday in her ruling that the mandate “exceeded the CDC’s statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exception to notice and comment rulemaking, and failed to adequately explain its decisions.”
&#8220;I was both surprised and disappointed,&#8221; Fauci said of the court ruling, &#8220;because those types of things really are the purview of the CDC. This is a public health issue.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Dr. Fauci to CNN+ on Judge Mizelle striking down the CDC&#39;s mask mandate: &quot;We are concerned about that about the courts getting involved in things that are unequivocally a public health decision&#8230;This is a CDC issue, should not have been a court issue&#8230;It was perfectly logical.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/hn19pAV2Vw">pic.twitter.com/hn19pAV2Vw</a>
&mdash; Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1517248938981703680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;If you look at the rationale for that, it really is not particularly firm, and we are concerned about that, about courts getting involved in things that are unequivocally a public health decision,&#8221; Fauci continued during a CNN+ interview. &#8220;This is a CDC issue, should not have been a court issue.&#8221;
Fauci insisted that the CDC&#8217;s May 3 end to the mask date should have been honored.
&#8220;So, we are hoping that the inevitable increase in cases which we are seeing are not going to be associated with an increase in hospitalizations,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So, all of these dynamic things going on at the same time, it was perfectly logical for the CDC to say wait a minute, we were planning on ending this mandate on a certain date, let’s wait a period of time until May 3, which was a very sound public health decision.&#8221;
His remarks were met with outrage by social media users.
&#8220;Is there a time, any time, regarding any power, that it IS appropriate for the checks and balances system we have to check the CDC’s &#8216;sound public-health decisions,&#8217; according to Fauci,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/mkhammer/status/1517254497097031684">asked</a> commentator Mary Katherine Ham. &#8220;He seems to indicate no. But his personal judgment is not a workable limiting principle.&#8221;
&#8220;Dr. Fauci really shouldn&#8217;t be commenting on issues that are unequivocally statutory authority issues,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/mattdizwhitlock/status/1517246207659319302">tweeted</a> communications consultant Matt Whitlock.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Absolutely insane. Fauci is saying that unelected CDC bureaucrats should be able to impose their will on the country without question or pushback. Just nuts. <a href="https://t.co/C3PATKuUXk">https://t.co/C3PATKuUXk</a>
&mdash; Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) <a href="https://twitter.com/abigailmarone/status/1517253270825312257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;This is completely dangerous &amp; insane,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/VinceCoglianese/status/1517252858197991425">tweeted</a> WMAL host Vince Coglianese. &#8220;Fauci is declaring the CDC above judicial scrutiny. Dangerous lunacy. It’s long past time for Fauci to go.&#8221;
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-you-use-lockdowns-to-get-people-vaccinated">also sparked a backlash</a> last week when he said that governments use lockdowns to “get people vaccinated&#8221; as he discussed China&#8217;s heavily restrictive coronavirus lockdowns.
Fauci said that China has a “number of problems,” noting that the country’s strict lockdowns would never be able to be implemented in the United States, “although that prevents the spread of infection.”
“I remember early on they were saying, and I think accurately, that they were doing better than almost anyone else,” Fauci said.
“But lockdown has its consequences,” he continued. “You use lockdowns to get people vaccinated so that when you open up, you won’t have a surge of infections, because you are dealing with an immunologically naïve population, to the virus, because they’ve not really been exposed because of the lockdown.”
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://utm.io/ueuP8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission</a>.

Screen Shot 2022-04-21 at 5.45.00 PM

Fauci Suggests Judge Did Not Have Authority To Overturn Mask Mandate

Air Travel

Biden Administration

Mask Mandate

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said this week that governments use lockdowns to &#8220;get people vaccinated.&#8221;
Fauci, who served on former President Donald Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force and is now President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser on COVID-19, discussed coronavirus lockdowns in China on Wednesday during an interview on MSNBC.
China has either partially or fully locked down at least 44 cities across the country in attempts to curb the Omicron variant, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/15/china/china-covid-xi-jinping-shanghai-crisis-intl-hnk-mic/index.html">according to CNN</a>, sparking desperation from citizens in Shanghai locked in their homes for weeks.
Fauci said that China has a &#8220;number of problems,&#8221; noting that the country&#8217;s strict lockdowns would never be able to be implemented in the United States, &#8220;although that prevents the spread of infection.&#8221;
&#8220;I remember early on they were saying, and I think accurately, that they were doing better than almost anyone else,&#8221; Fauci said.
&#8220;But lockdown has its consequences,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;You use lockdowns to get people vaccinated so that when you open up, you won&#8217;t have a surge of infections, because you are dealing with an immunologically naive population, to the virus, because they&#8217;ve not really been exposed because of the lockdown.&#8221;
The vaccines that the Chinese have been using are not nearly as effective as vaccines used in the United States and the United Kingdom, he noted.
WATCH: 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Fauci: &#039;You Use Lockdowns To Get People Vaccinated&#039;" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SSxPv8HFLaU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Fauci <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-dont-want-to-pooh-pooh-getting-infected-fauci-is-says-americans-should-consider-precautions">also said</a> Sunday on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week&#8221; that Americans should still be taking precautionary measures against the coronavirus, particularly in regard to large events.
“We don’t want to pooh-pooh getting infected,&#8221; Fauci said, suggesting that large events require proof of vaccination or a negative test. &#8220;I think people sometimes say, ‘Well, it’s OK to get infected.’ No, it’s not.&#8221;
“They may be at home, they may require a doctor consultation, but they don’t get hospitalized,” Fauci added. “That’s not something to pooh-pooh.”
While officials <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/briefing/covid-rise-northeast-omicron.html">have expressed concerns</a> about COVID-19 cases emerging among Washington, D.C., elite and Philadelphia <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1092174190/philadelphia-mask-mandate-covid">reinstated its mask mandate</a> earlier this week, there does not seem to be indications of a larger surge throughout the country yet.
“We’re at that point where in many respects … we’re going to have to live with some degree of virus in the community,” Fauci <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-unequivocally-covid-19-is-here-to-stay">said Sunday</a>.  “So you’re going to make a question and an answer for yourself, for me as an individual, for you as an individual. What is my age? What is my status? Do I have people at home who are vulnerable that if I bring the virus home there may be a problem?”
“If you’re not, to get boosted if you’re eligible to be boosted,&#8221; he added. &#8220;If you’re in the certain group like the CDC’s recent determination about people 50 and older, and individuals with underlying conditions, get that fourth boost, which, by the way, we really need to concentrate a lot more on that, about getting new tests, getting drugs, getting vaccines which I hope the Congress comes through and gives us the resources so that as we get into what might be another surge that we’re prepared with the — all of the tools that we need to address it.&#8221;
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Become a member now and join our mission.</a>

Screen Shot 2022-04-15 at 9.41.44 AM

Fauci: ‘You Use Lockdowns To Get People Vaccinated’

China

Lockdowns

Vaccine Mandate

Menu