Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged on Tuesday that shuttering schools for months during the COVID pandemic was a &#8220;mistake,&#8221; a reversal for the former presidential chief medical advisor who became influential in the nation&#8217;s response to the malady.
Fauci, 83, was one of the lead members of both the Trump and Biden administrations&#8217; White House COVID teams and frequently appeared beside former President Donald Trump at briefings. The immunologist also led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the first two years of the pandemic.
Fauci made the admission <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqxazNlHp8Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during</a> an interview on CBS Mornings, saying that while the initial school closures were the right decision, keeping kids out of the classroom for so long was a mistake.
&#8220;I think what was not a mistake was the actual closure, because when we had a shutdown that 15 day to flatten the curve, we were in a tsunami of cases. Right here in New York, you had freezer trucks in front of Elmhurst Hospital,&#8221; Fauci said.
Fauci said that &#8220;shutting down everything immediately &#8230; even schools was the right thing.&#8221;
&#8220;How long you kept it was the problem because there was a disparity throughout the country,&#8221; he said.
Fauci also defended his own record, saying he urged states and counties to &#8220;close the bars, open the schools, open the schools as quickly and as safely as you possibly can.&#8221;
&#8220;But initially to close it down was correct,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Keeping it for a year was not a good idea.&#8221;
&#8220;So that was a mistake in retrospect? We will not repeat it?&#8221; the CBS anchor asked.
&#8220;Absolutely, yeah,&#8221; Fauci responded.
Previously, Fauci had warned that school shutdowns may be necessary, even ones that would last for months.
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/JudyWoodruff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JudyWoodruff</a>: Are we looking at many months of virtual learning before schools can safely open nationwide?
Dr. Anthony Fauci: &quot;In some places, Judy, that may be the case.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/fVgss0y4ol">pic.twitter.com/fVgss0y4ol</a>
&mdash; PBS News (@NewsHour) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/1294034260727402502?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
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8/4/20 Fauci on schools: 
&quot;There may be some areas where the level of virus is so high that it would not be prudent to bring children back to school.&quot;
In clip, he endorses Zoom education &amp; school closures in areas w/ COVID transmission. Fauci has never been for full reopening. <a href="https://t.co/eORstr2Lf8">pic.twitter.com/eORstr2Lf8</a>
&mdash; Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) <a href="https://twitter.com/JordanSchachtel/status/1333428269002203138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In August 2020, Fauci was asked by PBS NewsHour&#8217;s Judy Woodruff whether the country was facing &#8220;many months of virtual learning&#8221; before schools could safely open nationwide.
&#8220;In some places, Judy, that may be the case,&#8221; Fauci responded. &#8220;If you want your schools to open, get your community level down, down to a safe level.&#8221;
Also that month, Fauci said, &#8220;There may be some areas that the level of the virus is so high that it would not be prudent to bring the children back to school.&#8221;
School lockdowns <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-union-exec-suggests-learning-loss-made-us-all-equal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caused</a> massive learning loss across the country among K-12 students in public schools.
In 2022, eighth graders had the lowest U.S. history scores on record and among the lowest civics scores, according to the Department of Education. Only about 13% of eighth graders met proficiency <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ushistory/2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">standards</a> for U.S. history last year, and only about <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/civics/2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a fifth</a> of students were proficient or better in civics.
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Math and reading scores have also suffered over the pandemic, according to the department. Math scores <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/math-scores-dropped-in-every-state-during-pandemic-report-card-shows-11666584062?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted</a> among fourth and eighth graders in almost every state, and reading scores have also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-fourth-graders-cant-read-one-phoenix-school-has-a-new-way-to-fight-pandemic-learning-loss-11633818431?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sunk across</a> the country, erasing the last three decades of progress.
Many students returned to classrooms last year reading at the same level as when the pandemic started, putting them two grade levels behind. One study last year <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/health/covid-learning-loss-study-wellness/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that students lost about 35% of a typical school year’s worth of learning, starting when remote learning began.
In early 2021, a CDC study <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/01/26/stats-show-in-person-classes-dont-spread-covid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> &#8220;little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission.&#8221;
However, many schools remained closed for the remainder of that year thanks to teachers unions, which fought against reopening.
Learning loss caused by many months of remote learning spurred parents across the nation to demand schools return to in-person learning, especially after data showed that children were at low risk for serious cases of COVID.
Some parents even <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-moms-and-dads-taking-over-school-boards-across-the-country" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ran for school board</a> positions and won, hoping to stop the learning loss in their communities.

Leading Health Officials Testify On Federal Government’s Response To Monkeypox Outbreak

Fauci Admits Closing Schools For Months During Pandemic Was A ‘Mistake’

Fauci Admits Closing Schools For Months During Pandemic Was A 'Mistake'

Anthony Fauci

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School Shutdowns

People are being misled about studies examining the effectiveness of face masks against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19">COVID,</a> according to Dr. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-fauci">Anthony Fauci</a>.
Jonathan Karl, a co-anchor of ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week,&#8221; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeYq5aF3SVk">pressed Fauci</a> on the efficacy of masking near the end of an interview on Sunday. &#8220;There’s a new study out that suggests that masks were actually not effective, at least in a global sense, in containing the pandemic,&#8221; Karl said. &#8220;What is your sense, looking back at all this? Did masks prove to be less effective than you anticipated?&#8221;
Fauci responded by insisting that &#8220;some of the studies are confusing&#8221; and then singled out an <a href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full">analysis</a> released in January by The Cochrane Institute, which raised the prospect that masks hardly made a difference in stopping the spread of respiratory viruses such as COVID.
The study prompted headlines saying that <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11702865/Masks-make-little-no-difference-Covid-infections-massive-cross-country-meta-analysis-finds.html">face masks made</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/face-masks-made-little-to-no-difference-in-preventing-covid-study/">&#8220;little to no difference&#8221;</a> in preventing the spread of COVID after a wave of mask guidelines and mandates during the pandemic, but Karla Soares-Weiser, editor-in-chief of the Cochrane Library, <a href="https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses-review">responded with a statement</a> in March saying it was an &#8220;inaccurate and misleading interpretation&#8221; to claim that the study found that &#8220;masks don&#8217;t work.&#8221;
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Fauci JUST NOW: “There are a number of studies that show that masks actually do work.” <a href="https://t.co/hJeT6EZXyw">pic.twitter.com/hJeT6EZXyw</a>
&mdash; DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeSantisWarRoom/status/1700890098898792928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The study that recently has been now quoted a lot and causing a lot of confusion is this Cochrane study, which even the people who run the Cochrane study say that that study can be misleading because people have commented on that study saying, &#8216;Absolutely masks don’t work,&#8217; which is absolutely not the case because there are a number of studies that show that masks actually do work,&#8221; Fauci said.
&#8220;And there’s a lot of confusion where you take a broad series of studies, and you look at them in a meta-analysis,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Only a couple of those studies were specifically looking at COVID. So, I think we’d better be careful that that study that people keep talking about can be very, very misleading. There’s a lot of good data that masks work.&#8221;
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Fauci, now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-joins-georgetown-as-distinguished-university-professor">part of the faculty</a> at Georgetown University, was a longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden. Toward the end of his tenure in government, Fauci faced blowback for how he jumped from advising people not to wear face masks early in the COVID pandemic to advocating for masking against the virus, a change he attributed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/factsfirst/politics/factcheck_e58c20c6-8735-4022-a1f5-1580bc732c45">to the emergence of new data</a>.
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Fauci admits that masks don’t work for the public at large but still absurdly claims masks work on an individual basis.  More subterfuge. <a href="https://t.co/UcjOa8flkr">pic.twitter.com/UcjOa8flkr</a>
&mdash; Rand Paul (@RandPaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1698372490639327556?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
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In an interview that aired on CNN last week, Fauci <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-confronted-with-study-that-raised-doubts-about-masks">insisted</a> that &#8220;many studies&#8221; show masking protects people on an &#8220;individual basis&#8221; rather than on a &#8220;broad population&#8221; level.
One of Fauci&#8217;s most vocal critics, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), shot back in a post to X. &#8220;Fauci admits that masks don’t work for the public at large, but still absurdly claims masks work on an individual basis. More subterfuge,&#8221; Paul said.

Fauci Warns Of ‘Confusing’ Studies On Masking

Fauci Warns Of 'Confusing' Studies On Masking

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Rand Paul

Dr. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-fauci">Anthony Fauci</a> was asked to respond to a study that raised doubts about face masks being able to curb the spread of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid-19">COVID</a>.
The exchange happened during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3AMslS6cKw">interview on CNN</a> over the weekend when host Michael Smerconish brought up an analysis released in January by The Cochrane Institute. He also pointed to an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/opinion/do-mask-mandates-work.html#:~:text=The%20conclusions%20were%20based%20on,against%20Covid%20than%20those%20without.">opinion piece</a> from Bret Stephens in The New York Times that quoted Oxford epidemiologist and lead author of the study, Tom Jefferson, <a href="https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-lead-author-of-new-cochrane">telling journalist Maryanne Demasi</a> there was a lack of evidence underpinning the effectiveness of masks and saying mask mandates were based on &#8220;flawed&#8221; studies.
&#8220;Yeah but there are other studies,&#8221; Fauci replied, stressing that other reviews focus on the individual level.
“When you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong,” Fauci said. “But when you talk about as an individual basis of someone protecting themselves or protecting themselves from spreading it to others, there’s no doubt that there’s many studies that show that there is an advantage.”
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&#8220;When you [look] at the broad population level like the Cochrane study, the data are less firm with regard to the effect on the overall pandemic,&#8221; Fauci added. &#8220;But we&#8217;re not talking about that, we&#8217;re talking about an individual&#8217;s effect on their own safety. That&#8217;s a bit different than the broad population level.&#8221;
The Cochrane study made the rounds earlier this year, leading to headlines saying that <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11702865/Masks-make-little-no-difference-Covid-infections-massive-cross-country-meta-analysis-finds.html">face masks made</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/face-masks-made-little-to-no-difference-in-preventing-covid-study/">&#8220;little to no difference&#8221;</a> in preventing the spread of COVID after a wave of mask guidelines and mandates during the pandemic.
That led Karla Soares-Weiser, editor-in-chief of the Cochrane Library, <a href="https://www.cochrane.org/news/statement-physical-interventions-interrupt-or-reduce-spread-respiratory-viruses-review">to respond with a statement</a> in March saying it was an &#8220;inaccurate and misleading interpretation&#8221; to claim that the study found that &#8220;masks don&#8217;t work.&#8221;
Fauci, a longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, also said he was concerned that people would not adhere to health recommendations during an <a href="https://www.today.com/health/coronavirus/covid-summer-surge-2023-rcna100602">uptick in COVID cases</a> and the emergence of a new variant.
&#8220;I would hope that if in fact we get to the point that the volume of cases is such and organizations like the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommend — CDC does not mandate anything — recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that they abide by the recommendation and take into account the risks to themselves and to their families.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Fauci Confronted With Study That Raised Doubts About Masks

The battle against COVID may be over, but the war on medicine rages on. Too many practicing physicians have been targeted by medical authorities for making treatment decisions based on training and expertise, rather than blindly taking orders from the bureaucrats in Washington. Pushing conformity in medicine only hurts patients, and it needs to stop.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see how this can happen without a regime change in D.C. Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration used the pandemic to usher in an unprecedented era of government power over health care decisions. When Fauci finally stepped down in December, many of us hoped this disastrous campaign would come to an end. But those hopes were dashed with the appointment of Jeanne Marrazzo as his successor to head the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The new boss might be even worse. A giddy Marrazzo described getting a COVID-19 vaccine as, “<a href="https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1686829418927599616" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a lot like Christmas when I was a kid!</a>” 
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Here&#39;s the new Dr. Fauci, Jeanne Marrazzo, giddy with anticipation of her first vaccine shot: &quot;It felt a lot like Christmas when i was a kid!&quot; selfies all around! <a href="https://t.co/ES8fsL9kVT">pic.twitter.com/ES8fsL9kVT</a>
&mdash; Justin Hart (@justin_hart) <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1686829418927599616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
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She has also <a href="https://twitter.com/DrJeanneM/status/1582748597581271047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1582748597581271047%7Ctwgr%5Ee91b771914197e31c4b9740a1b540fb5bf6f28e5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fhealth%2F2023%2F08%2F02%2Fnew-nih-niaid-director-jeanne-marrazzo-anothony-fauci%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heralded Fauci</a> for his “commitment to advancing science.” And Fauci predictably <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/health/nih-selects-jeanne-marrazzo-succeed-fauci-infectious-disease-expert" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised Marrazzo’s selection</a>, assuring that she would “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/08/02/new-nih-niaid-director-jeanne-marrazzo-anothony-fauci/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stick with data and facts</a>” and warning that she will likely face “antagonism on the part of people with extreme views.”
That’s rich. While Marrazzo basks in the adulation of a fawning media, doctors doing the hard work on the frontlines are under attack. In the latest broadside, Dr. Paul Marik and I, cofounders of the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) just received a <a href="https://covid19criticalcare.com/two-leading-covid-19-doctors-are-facing-accusations-of-spreading-misinformation-by-american-board-of-internal-medicine-abim-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) threatening to revoke our medical certifications for spreading what the committee considers “false or inaccurate medical information.” Apparently, the vast amounts of published peer-reviewed, clinical, and observational data that we use to treat patients are not based on “consensus driven scientific evidence.”
Independent thinking has formed the foundation of medicine for a thousand years. Physicians apply the scientific method, test different approaches to heal patients, build on what works and ignore what doesn’t. And even when scientific insights are widely upheld, challenging of established beliefs has led to innumerable scientific advances throughout history. “Consensus driven scientific evidence” is a false notion whipped up during the pandemic to cudgel the regime’s political opponents — and it has been largely successful. 
Our story is a telling case study, which I cover in detail in my new book, “<a href="https://thehighwire.shop/products/the-war-on-ivermectin-the-medicine-that-saved-millions-and-could-have-ended-the-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The War on Ivermectin</a>.” In December 2020, just a few weeks after I voted for Biden, I was invited to testify before a <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Kory-2020-12-08.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate Homeland Security Committee</a> on early treatment of COVID-19 to discuss my experience treating patients with ivermectin and other repurposed, generic medicines. Two days later, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-united-kingdom-health-media-social-media-39efdb570c6e58bd99fbc5ae7f27dc05" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> ignored all the data I provided them, instead publishing a hit piece on ivermectin at a time when dozens of studies and health ministries around the world confirmed its efficacy. The video of my Senate appearance garnered 8 million views before <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-cancels-the-u-s-senate-11612288061" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube removed it</a>. 
In the years since, endless attacks have been leveled at the FLCCC and me personally. Media hit jobs branded studied medical advice as “fringe,” “quack,” or “Right-wing” — despite the fact that at the time, I had been a lifelong Democrat voter. Newswire services refused to distribute our press releases. Our social media posts were removed, and our accounts were repeatedly suspended. PayPal refused to process our donations. Shopify denied sales of our branded clothing for donations. Medium, LinkedIn, and Vimeo shut down our channels. 
The ABIM is only the latest organization to pile on, perpetuating the myth that ivermectin is dangerous without critically examining the scientific and clinical evidence. In its statement, the committee cited an <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/04/1034217306/ivermectin-overdose-exposure-cases-poison-control-centers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NPR</a> story that was later corrected for falsely claiming the drug was causing a surge in emergency room admittance. It also made false claims that ivermectin could be “fatal” while never mentioning the 99 controlled trials – 46 of them randomized controlled trials – that showed ivermectin is highly effective in treating COVID-19 with little to no reported side effects. These trials include over 130,000 patients successfully treated with no severe side effects, consistent with the World Health Organization’s finding that ivermectin ranks higher in safety than Tylenol or aspirin. 
Guess who chairs the ABIM’s Council and Infectious Disease Specialty Board? None other than Dr. Marrazzo. Now, as the head of NIAID, she oversees a $6.3 billion dollar budget and will exert massive influence over policies that can impact every facet of our lives. 
This is the world Fauci created, and this is the torch Marrazzo will carry forward. Our medical agencies desperately need an overhaul, and our professional societies need to be stripped of their newly created physician oversight powers. Doctors should be independent, fearless, and fact-based. 
Pierre Kory, M.D., is president and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and the author of “<a href="https://thehighwire.shop/products/the-war-on-ivermectin-the-medicine-that-saved-millions-and-could-have-ended-the-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic</a>”.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Whote House Covid Briefing

Why Our Medical Agencies Desperately Need An Overhaul

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Prominent scientists are demanding a full retraction of an early, highly influential paper on the origins of COVID-19 that downplayed the lab leak theory and was praised by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” published in March 2020 in the journal Nature Medicine, declared that COVID did not come from a lab despite private doubts from the authors that a lab leak was possible, and even &#8220;likely.&#8221;
“Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9#Sec8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> the five prominent scientists who authored the paper. &#8220;We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.&#8221;
However, emails from early 2020 that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/us-formally-suspends-funding-to-wuhan-institute-of-virology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">came to light</a> earlier this year show that Fauci and the paper&#8217;s authors suspected all along that the virus may have been the result of a lab leak.
A total of 47 scientists and other STEM professionals <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/caught-red-handed-scientists-call-for-full-retraction-of-natures-proximal-origin-paper-as-fraud-accusations-mount/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an <a href="https://biosafetynow.org/open-letter-to-nature-medicine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open letter</a> to Nature Medicine journal calling for the paper to be retracted.
&#8220;We, as STEM and STEM-policy professionals, call upon Nature Medicine to publish an expression of editorial concern for the paper and to begin a process of withdrawal or retraction of the paper,&#8221; the signers wrote.
The paper is “scientific fraud,” declared one of the signers, Richard H. Ebright, the Board of Governors professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University.
The paper &#8220;falsely claimed science showed COVID-19 did not have a lab origin,&#8221; Ebright wrote in a tweet. &#8220;Newly released messages from the authors show they did not believe the conclusions of the paper and show the paper is the product of scientific fraud and scientific misconduct.&#8221;
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The 2020 &quot;Proximal Origin&quot; paper falsely claimed science showed COVID-19 did not have a lab origin. Newly released messages from the authors show they did not believe the conclusions of the paper and show the paper is the product of scientific fraud and scientific misconduct.… <a href="https://t.co/61daITfmA9">pic.twitter.com/61daITfmA9</a>
&mdash; Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) <a href="https://twitter.com/R_H_Ebright/status/1682786904159182848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Neil Harrison, a professor of anesthesiology and molecular pharmacology at Columbia University, also signed the letter calling for a retraction.
Harrison <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/22/covid-lab-leak-prof-andrew-rambaut-avoid-upsetting-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> there is &#8220;no evidence&#8221; for the conclusions that the virus had a natural origin or that the pandemic began at a seafood market, and the authors&#8217; private messages show they knew this at the time.
“Scientists in the clinical and contiguous sciences have argued against these papers almost from the beginning, and have been subjected to volleys of abuse. This is the first retraction call but it won’t be the last,” Harrison said.
Other signers of the retraction letter include a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at Harvard who has researched vaccines, an epidemiology professor at the University of Ottawa, a biochemistry and molecular biology professor at Pennsylvania State University, an epidemiologist and health professor at the University of California, Irvine, a professor of molecular immunology at the University of Oxford, and many others.
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The COVID-origin paper&#8217;s authors agreed to downplay the lab leak theory, “given the s*** show that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release,” one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scientists-agreed-to-downplay-chinese-lab-leak-theory-for-fear-of-s-show-messages-indicate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a private Slack message in February 2020.
“Yup, I totally agree that that’s a very reasonable conclusion. Although I hate when politics is injected into science – but its [sic] impossible not to, especially given the circumstances,” one of the paper’s other authors responded.
At the end of January, Fauci had a call with one of the COVID origin paper’s authors, Kristian Andersen, that concerned him so much that Fauci suggested potentially notifying the FBI. Fauci was the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and served as a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in 2020.
“Some of the features (potentially) look engineered,” Anderson wrote in an email to Fauci that same evening.
Fauci wrote in an email that a group of evolutionary biologists should get together to examine whether Andersen&#8217;s concerns were validated. If so, they should notify the authorities, likely the FBI, Fauci said.
“[The] lab escape version of this is so friggin&#8217; likely to have happened because they were already doing this type of work and the molecular data is fully consistent with that scenario,” a concerned Andersen reportedly <a href="https://public.substack.com/p/top-scientists-misled-congress-about?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=279400&amp;post_id=135220097&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on February 1, 2020.
The scientists scrambled to look for a natural evolution explanation for COVID-19, but they struggled to find conclusive evidence.
A week later, Andersen <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/01/19/covid-origin-nih-emails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “Our main work over the last couple of weeks has been focused on trying to disprove any type of lab theory, but we are at a crossroad where the scientific evidence isn’t conclusive enough to say that we have high confidence in any of the three main theories considered.”
“As to publishing this document in a journal, I am currently not in favor of doing so,” he added.
However, in March, the researchers decided to move forward and publish the scientific paper that downplayed the lab leak theory.
“Thanks for your note,” Fauci replied when informed the paper would be published soon. “Nice job on the paper.”
In April, Fauci would <a href="https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1682838526847598595" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cite</a> the study from the White House podium as evidence the virus jumped from animals to humans.
In a new ripple that came to light this month, Andersen <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/07/21/covid-origin-nih-lab-leak/?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also had</a> a pending $8.9 million NIAID grant that still required final approval from Fauci when the study was published, according to The Intercept.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) begrudgingly released the unredacted emails earlier this year after more than a year of litigation involving Freedom Of Information Act requests from journalists.

Scientists Demand Full Retraction Of COVID Natural Origins Paper Praised By Fauci

China

Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) chief <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-fauci" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Anthony Fauci</a> will move on from advising those in the highest levels of the U.S. government to training the next generation of doctors. 
Georgetown University announced Monday that Fauci will join the school&#8217;s Department of Medicine as a “Distinguished University Professor,” the school’s highest professional honor. Beginning on July 1, the 82-year-old doctor will be a part of the Division of Infectious Diseases, which provides clinical care, conducts research, and trains future physicians in infectious diseases,” <a href="https://twitter.com/SherylNYT/status/1673376504225611776/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a Georgetown press release. 
“We are deeply honored to welcome Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a dedicated public servant, humanitarian and visionary global health leader, to Georgetown,” <a href="https://www.georgetown.edu/news/dr-anthony-fauci-to-join-georgetown-faculty-as-distinguished-university-professor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Georgetown President John J. DeGioia. “Dr. Fauci has embodied the Jesuit value of being in service to others throughout his career, and we are grateful to have his expertise, strong leadership and commitment to guiding the next generation of leaders to meet the pressing issues of our time.”
Along with the honor of being named a university professor, Fauci was also appointed to Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, which offers public policy master&#8217;s degrees. 
In December, Fauci stepped down after working for nearly four decades as the director of the NIAID, which falls under the National Institute of Health (NIH). Fauci worked in the federal government for 54 years after joining the NIH in 1968 during the Lyndon Johnson administration. Fauci went on to advise seven presidents, influencing public policy decisions for decades. 
Fauci became the face of the U.S. response to the COVID pandemic after he was tapped by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 to serve on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The doctor was criticized for his advice during the course of the pandemic, initially telling Americans not to wear masks before changing his recommendation later, leading states and local governments to enact strict mask requirements for months during the pandemic. President Joe Biden named Fauci as the chief medical advisor to the president after taking office in 2021. 
Fauci faced intense backlash after he said under oath before Congress that NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research” at the Chinese lab where many speculate COVID likely leaked from. Documents obtained by <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Intercept</a> appear to show that the NIH did fund gain-of-function research at the lab, contrary to Fauci’s testimony. 
Fauci’s retirement from the NIAID came into question last week when Sen. Rand Paul, who famously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz7OGxb9X6E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clashed</a> with Fauci during COVID Senate hearings, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/retired-or-not-sen-rand-paul-demands-dr-faucis-employment-status-from-biden-administration">demanded</a> to know if Fauci was still receiving taxpayer dollars based on ambiguous statements made by the doctor before his retirement. 
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&#8220;While many interpreted these statements to mean Dr. Fauci would be ending his employment with the federal government in December 2022, it is not clear if that is in fact the case,&#8221; Paul wrote.
&#8220;This raises questions about Dr. Fauci’s current employment status and whether he is still receiving certain taxpayer-funded benefits associated with active public service, such as legal counsel and protective services,&#8221; the senator added.
Georgetown’s announcement indicates that Fauci is officially moving on from his work in the federal government as he confirmed that he is looking forward to joining the university. 
“I am delighted to join the Georgetown family, an institution steeped in clinical and academic excellence with an emphasis on the Jesuit tradition of public service,” Fauci said. “This is a natural extension of my scientific, clinical and public health career, which was initially grounded from my high school and college days where I was exposed to intellectual rigor, integrity and service-mindedness of Jesuit institutions.”

Fauci Joins Georgetown As ‘Distinguished University Professor’

Fauci Joins Georgetown As 'Distinguished University Professor'

Celebrities

Donald Trump

Georgetown University

U.S.

Dr. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-fauci" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anthony Fauci</a>, former director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview this week that people should stop blaming public health officials for mistakes that were made during the pandemic.
CNN&#8217;s Christiane Amanpour asked Fauci what he thinks he and the scientific community &#8220;got wrong&#8221; with the policies that they pushed for and implemented.
&#8220;What are the real takeaways, the real lessons for public health?&#8221; she asked.
&#8220;I think we have to get away from the blame game because so many of the things that you have mentioned were unknowns at the time,&#8221; Fauci responded. &#8220;It&#8217;s so easy.&#8221;
&#8220;This is really big time Monday morning quarterbacking here, which is what it is,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;So, rather than have a blame game, and that&#8217;s one of the things that we have to stay away from because there were things that happened and it was a moving target and there were things that you did not know at the time and you had to, out of necessity, make a decision.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“We have to get away from the blame game,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci. Shutdowns were necessary, he adds, but some “schools stayed closed far too long.”
That said, he says the school where his daughter taught shut down for two weeks and “they didn’t do too badly.” <a href="https://t.co/DlPnWShomj">pic.twitter.com/DlPnWShomj</a>
&mdash; Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) <a href="https://twitter.com/amanpour/status/1651999361981722639?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You know, there were many instances, and we could play many and repeat many, you&#8217;re obviously very familiar, but, you know, the fisticuffs with people in Congress, presidential candidates, senators, governors, DeSantis, you know, and other people who just basically blamed you. They basically blamed you. They said everything you did was contrary to saving lives. As if you were in full charge.
So, I realize you&#8217;re going to say, well, no, I wasn&#8217;t in full charge. But I want to know what you think you and the community got wrong. Was the closing of the schools too draconian? How much of a delay did the fact that nobody fully understood the asymptomatic spread of this, nobody figured out that it could actually bus through certain vaccine levels as well?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, FORMER DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO THE U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes, yes.
AMANPOUR: What are the real takeaways, the real lessons for public health?
DR. FAUCI: Yes. I think we have to get away from the blame game because so many of the things that you have mentioned were unknowns at the time. It&#8217;s so easy, and I made that comment in my response to one of the questions that Davis Wallace-Wells asked me in the &#8212;
AMANPOUR: This is in &#8220;The New York Times&#8221; profile.
DR. FAUCI: In the &#8220;The New York Times&#8221; profile. And I didn&#8217;t mean it as an affront to him, but I said, you know, this is really big time Monday morning quarterbacking here, which is what it is. So, rather than have a blame game, and that&#8217;s one of the things that we have to stay away from because there were things that happened and it was a moving target and there were things that you did not know at the time and you had to, out of necessity, make a decision.
And sometimes the decision was partially right. For example, let me give you an example of a partially right decision. I think the idea, when you having trucks, that were cooler trucks, pulling up to hospitals in order to put bodies in because the morgues were overflowing and the hospital beds were being challenged that you had a triage, you had to shut down. I don&#8217;t think anybody who has any realistic evaluation knows that you&#8217;ve got to do something dramatic.
Once that&#8217;s done, then the thing that you need to now go back and analyze, I don&#8217;t think anyone would argue with the fact that you had to shut down, is how long you keep the shut down and how complete it is, how does that relate to schools when you shut down schools, if you do. And I have been very vocal about this and I think that people who like to point fingers, I say, go look and look at the tape. You know, the tale of the tape, when I kept on saying over and over again, we&#8217;ve got to get the children back to school as quickly as possible. We&#8217;ve got to get them in school safely and we&#8217;ve got to make sure that they are not essentially out of school, at home, getting it over the negative consequences.
Different parts of the country interpreted that differently. There were schools that stayed closed far too long and longer than they should have and there were those that essentially didn&#8217;t close at all. You know, my daughter is a school teacher in New Orleans, they closed out for two weeks, and we&#8217;re essentially open for the rest of the time and other schools &#8212;
AMANPOUR: The result was?
DR. FAUCI: And the result was, you know, they didn&#8217;t do too badly. I mean, the kids got infected, a lot of them did, you know, virtually. It was very difficult to determine, and say, well, if you shut down this long, you get no negative effect on the child and minimum effect on the infection, those studies weren&#8217;t done. It was just trying to do as best as you can in these circumstances that you are in.</blockquote>

30th Anniversary White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch

Dr. Fauci On Mistakes Made During The Pandemic: ‘We Have To Get Away From The Blame Game’

COVID-19 Vaccine

A scientist who helped lead a group collaborating with coronavirus research at a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan vouches for the theory that COVID-19 was genetically engineered and leaked from the facility.
Dr. Andrew Huff, the former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance who has written a new book, claims grant funding from the United States government for research in China led to the &#8220;biggest US intelligence failure since 9/11,&#8221; <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/20543847/wuhan-lab-warning-covid-lab-leak/">according to The Sun</a>.
&#8220;EcoHealth Alliance and foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,&#8221; he writes in his book, The Truth About Wuhan.
More than <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">6.5 million people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died</a> since the earliest cases were reported in Wuhan in late December 2019. The origin of the pandemic has become a topic of fierce debate, with two leading theories being there was a natural emergence or a lab leak. China and the lab in Wuhan <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/world/asia/china-covid-wuhan-lab-leak.html">denied being to blame</a>, but the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-world-organization-government-and-politics-8662c2bc1784d3dea33f61caa6089ac2">World Health Organization recommended</a> further study into the lab leak theory over the summer.
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EcoHealth Alliance has worked on coronavirus research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/science/bats-covid-lab-leak-nih.html">supported by millions of dollars in grants</a> from the National Institutes of Health. Last year, as scrutiny of their work intensified, the group denied claims by the NIH that it <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3154232/ecohealth-alliance-defends-us-funded-bat-coronavirus-research">failed to properly report its findings</a>.
Dr. Francis Collins, who was the director of the NIH, rejected the notion that federal funding led to the pandemic. &#8220;Analysis of published genomic data and other documents from the grantee demonstrate that the naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied under the NIH grant are genetically far distant from SARS-CoV-2 and could not possibly have caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/statement-misinformation-about-sars-cov-2-origins">he said</a>.
Huff worked at EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016 and has since become a whistleblower. He says the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nih-unearth-more-grant-violations-by-wuhan-lab-collaborator-ecohealth-alliance">U.S. taxpayer-funded nonprofit group</a> instructed the Wuhan lab in the &#8220;best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species&#8221; for years and claims &#8220;China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent.&#8221;
Huff says he quit EcoHealth &#8220;due to a large number of ethical concerns with the scientific work and EcoHealth Alliance as a whole.&#8221; He is suing the group in New York, according to The Sun.
Huff indicated that he had seen no evidence to show China deliberately released the virus, The Sun reported. But he says the U.S. government is &#8220;to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese&#8221; and accuses Dr. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dr-anthony-fauci-repeatedly-defends-communist-china-from-covid-cover-up-accusations">Anthony Fauci of being involved in a cover-up</a>.
After President Joe Biden ordered a 90-day U.S. intelligence review into the virus origin last year, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/16/politics/biden-intel-review-covid-origins/index.html">it was reported</a> that officials in his administration found the lab leak theory as credible as the natural emergence theory. After the inquiry, Biden criticized China for a lack of transparency and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/27/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-investigation-into-the-origins-of-covid-%E2%81%A019/">pledged a further investigation</a>.
Huff claims he was offered a role with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2019, though he suspects that if he had accepted the position, the agency &#8220;would have disclosed restricted information to me, which would have consequently prevented me from discussing any of this information publicly, like I have been and am doing now.&#8221;
The Truth About Wuhan, published by Skyhorse and distributed by Simon &amp; Schuster, is <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Truth-about-Wuhan/Andrew-G-Huff/9781510773882">due to be released on Tuesday</a>.

(Photo credit should read Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Whistleblower Says COVID Leaked From Wuhan Lab

Whistleblowers

World

Wuhan

Wuhan Institute of Virology

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, repeatedly defended communist China during two interviews Sunday morning.
Fauci gave the defenses of China when he was asked about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which many experts believe occurred during an accident at a lab in Wuhan.
Fauci claimed during an interview with CBS News&#8217; Margaret Brennan on &#8220;Face the Nation&#8221; that China often &#8220;acts secretive&#8221; even &#8220;when there&#8217;s nothing at all to hide.&#8221; Fauci pointed to the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in the early 2000s as an example.
However, a 2003 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/world/the-sars-epidemic-epidemic-china-admits-underreporting-its-sars-cases.html">report</a> from The New York Times highlighted that China later admitted to underreporting cases of the disease and that the actual number of cases was &#8220;many times higher than previously reported.&#8221;
Brennan then mentioned how a recent op-ed from The Washington Post editorial board said that &#8220;the cover-up is immense and still in place&#8221; and that China needed to allow a new investigation into the pandemic&#8217;s origins.
&#8220;Do you agree with that word cover-up?&#8221; Brennan asked. &#8220;And intentional distortion?&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know what that means,&#8221; Fauci responded. &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure what they&#8217;re talking about. I mean, if cover-up is not allowing people to come in and look at all the data, that&#8217;s not a cover, that&#8217;s not being transparent.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Anthony Fauci is asked if he agrees with using the words &quot;cover-up&quot; and &quot;intentional distortion&quot; to describe China&#39;s role in COVID.
FAUCI: &quot;I don&#39;t know what that means, no.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/NbJnIG1AuC">pic.twitter.com/NbJnIG1AuC</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1596913449262616577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fauci then defended China for not turning over its primary data from the pandemic by blaming the Trump administration.
&#8220;They can say, oh, you know, it&#8217;s in frozen food, or it&#8217;s in this or it&#8217;s in that. But there&#8217;s no primary data,&#8221; Fauci said. &#8220;The [World Health Organization] went in and saw some of the data, which some of which was actually quite helpful. But we- you know what we need, Margaret, we need a transparency and a collaboration to open things up so that we can discuss it in a non-accusatory way.&#8221;
&#8220;What happens is that if you look at the anti-China approach, that clearly the Trump administration had right from the very beginning, and the accusatory nature, the Chinese are going to flinch back and say, &#8216;Oh, I&#8217;m sorry, we&#8217;re not going to talk to you about it,&#8217; which is not correct,&#8221; Fauci continued. &#8220;They should be.&#8221;
When Brennan mentioned that China is still not cooperating with U.S. officials, Fauci defended the Biden administration by saying that the &#8220;horse is out of the barn.&#8221;
During an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News&#8217; &#8220;Meet the Press,&#8221; Fauci again defended China over accusations that the communist nation is covering up the pandemic&#8217;s origins.
&#8220;Now there would be one theory as to why is the Chinese government acting so peculiar and weird, and they still have not come clean on what they can tell us about the start of this pandemic, have they?&#8221; Todd asked.
&#8220;Yeah. Yeah. That is true,&#8221; Fauci answered. &#8220;And that is, in some respects, and I don&#8217;t mean this in a broad pejorative way, but in anything that we&#8217;ve had to do over decades, whether it&#8217;s bird flu, H5N1, H7N9, or the original SARS in 2002, even when there&#8217;s nothing to hide they act in a suspicious, non-transparent way just probably because they don&#8217;t want to make it look like there&#8217;s a blame. When the reality is, if something evolves in your country, it’s not to blame but let&#8217;s find out what went on so we can be transparent about it and prevent it for the next time happening.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;Why is the Chinese government acting so peculiar and weird?&quot;
ANTHONY FAUCI: &quot;I don&#39;t mean this in a broad, pejorative way, but&#8230;even when there&#39;s nothing to hide, they act in a suspicious, non-transparent way.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/1zRRNUCWPf">pic.twitter.com/1zRRNUCWPf</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1596876296914468865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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2022 Portrait Of A Nation Gala

Dr. Anthony Fauci Repeatedly Defends Communist China From COVID Cover-Up Accusations

Communist China

You still see them regularly: People wearing masks while alone in their cars, or riding their bikes, or taking a stroll in the woods.
Apparently they napped through the high school lessons on parts per million — catching the virus outside is all but impossible.
Yet still, there they are. The establishment media in America spent two years terrifying these people with breathless reports that we were all about to die. Once they committed, they&#8217;re in it for the long game and may never take off the masks.
Make no mistake: COVID is still out there, and along with the flu, will be a threat to your health this winter. The virus has weakened but can still cause serious symptoms, so we want to say here that it&#8217;s not a terrible idea to don a mask when in a crowded place like a subway car or a restaurant.
That said, most Americans are just done with the whole mess, saying the pandemic is most definitely waning.
&#8220;There is bipartisan, majority-level agreement that the coronavirus situation is getting better, with 76% of Republicans and 61% of Democrats saying so,&#8221; a recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/404696/pandemic-outlook-recovers-leaders-messaging-falters.aspx?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=o_social&amp;utm_term=gallupnews&amp;utm_content=60bb079a-4165-45ca-8ff2-cae3176f7d95">Gallup poll</a> found. &#8220;Independents also broadly agree that the situation is improving (62%). All three groups have roughly returned to the levels last seen in February and April after cases were down from the January surge in infections.&#8221;
But that&#8217;s the overall. When the poll is broken down by party, it gets weird.
&#8220;Americans in all party groups have become more likely to say the pandemic is over since July, including increases of 12 points among Republicans, 14 points among Democrats and 10 points among independents,&#8221; Gallup found.
&#8220;However, Republicans are the only party with a majority saying the pandemic is over. Republicans are more than three times as likely as Democrats to say this, at 73% vs. 21%, while 48% of independents agree. Despite the fact that Biden has said he believes the pandemic is over, a majority of his party&#8217;s faithful, 79%, do not concur.&#8221;
That&#8217;s right — in July, just 7% of Democrats thought the pandemic was &#8220;over.&#8221; And that number is still just 21% in November, even though President Joe Biden made a major declaration a couple months ago.
“The pandemic is over,” Biden said in a “60 Minutes” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-shocks-white-house-by-declaring-pandemic-is-over-while-hundreds-of-americans-die-every-day">interview</a> that aired September 18. “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”
That confident assertion didn&#8217;t last long. The scaremongers in the White House, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the resident Debbie Downer, immediately walked back the statement.
&#8220;We are not where we need to be if we are going to quote &#8216;live with the virus,'&#8221; Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, said the following day. &#8220;We still must be aware of how unusual this virus is and continues to be in its ability to evolve into new variants which defy the standard public health mechanisms of addressing an outbreak.&#8221;
With all the fumfering from the White House, Americans&#8217; confidence in the president and the top federal health agency has plunged.
&#8220;One in three U.S. adults think President Joe Biden has communicated a clear plan in response to COVID-19. This marks an eight-point decline from the last reading in late 2021 and is the lowest on record for Biden,&#8221; Gallup found. &#8220;A similar 30% of Americans currently agree that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has communicated a clear plan, which is also an eight-point decline from the prior reading.&#8221;
So bottom line, Republicans mostly think the pandemic is over, but only 1 in 5 Democrats think so.
Look for a plethora of stories this winter on COVID cases rising — they will, of course — and watch out for Democrats demanding a whole new round of mandatory masks and lockdowns. For most of them, the pandemic will never be over.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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.

New York Yankees v Washington Nationals

Most Democrats STILL Don’t Think The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Over

Democrats STILL Don't Think COVID-19 Pandemic Is Over

Joe Biden

In late February of 2022, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford, delivered a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GljbhvGQ9EE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sermon</a> to his Silicon Valley church on the theme of “clean and unclean.” As he spoke of Christ’s revolutionary compassion in physically touching lepers and other diseased outcasts of the ancient world, he paused to reflect on how our society — in which 64 percent of the population professes to follow Jesus — conducted itself over the last two years.
“I started receiving emails almost immediately after the pandemic started from doctors and nurses asking me if it was okay to hug their wives and their husbands,” Bhattacharya shared from the metal music stand serving as his pulpit. “Because they worked in the hospital, they were unclean. Your COVID patients, they were unclean.”
He described seeing pedestrians swerve wide to avoid an unmasked person on the sidewalk, though it was known early on that coronavirus is very unlikely to spread outdoors. Then he asked the congregation, “When someone comes down with COVID, what&#8217;s the first question we all ask? ‘Where did you get it? Who gave it to you?’ We treat contracting the virus as a sin. As punishment for not being careful and doing all the right things.”
The point was clear — throughout the pandemic, Americans treated one another as if they were unclean.
Bhattacharya rose to national prominence after he and a group of colleagues from Harvard and Oxford released The Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, an open letter that opposed pandemic policies like lockdowns and instead advocated focused protection for the most vulnerable. Since then, he has spoken out against mask and vaccine mandates and called for more serious attention to vaccine injuries and risk.
But few are aware of the religious convictions that also help frame Bhattacharya’s scientific outlook.
Born to a Hindu family in Kolkata, India, he became Christian at age 18 after arriving in the U.S. for college. He’s been a member of First Presbyterian Church in Mountain View, California, where he has served as both a deacon and elder, for 27 years.
Perhaps if they had known this, fewer prominent evangelical pastors, theologians, and seminary heads would have been so willing to follow the lead of another famous scientist and Christian — former NIH Director Francis Collins — in labeling Bhattacharya’s medical opinions “fringe” and “conspiracy theories.”
<h2>‘Love Your Neighbor, Get the Shot’</h2>
From the beginning of the pandemic, Collins <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leveraged his relationships</a> with church leaders like Purpose Driven Life-author Rick Warren and apologist Tim Keller to convince Christians across the nation that submitting to lockdowns and mandates was a matter of obedience to God. Collins and his personal friends Christianity Today theologian Russell Moore and Billy Graham Center director Ed Stetzer also argued that Christians had a responsibility to tamp down on “conspiracy theories” like the notion that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab or that masks were ineffective.
But a public <a href="https://statement.biologos.org/#the-statement">statement</a> that was unearthed on social media last week from BioLogos, an organization Collins founded in 2007 to create bridges between scientists and Christians, reveals further spiritual manipulation to discredit medical experts like Bhattacharya who disputed the establishment narrative.
Titled “Love Your Neighbor, Get the Shot,” it was released in late August of 2020, as Bhattacharya was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-coronavirus-as-deadly-as-they-say-11585088464">publishing</a><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10321143/We-stop-viral-spread-COVID-end-pandemic-writes-Dr-Jay-Bhattacharya.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> widely-circulated</a><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/we-should-focus-protecting-vulnerable-covid-infection-opinion-1543225"> op-eds</a> in outlets like The Wall Street Journal and sitting down for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UO3Wd5urg0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviews</a> warning that COVID risks were being inflated and lockdown harms were being minimized.
The signatories (which included celebrated theologian N.T. Wright, best-selling Christian authors Philip Yancey and Lisa Sharon Harper, Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer, Christianity Today CEO Timothy Dalrymple, and several seminary presidents) promised to “actively promote accurate scientific and public health information from trustworthy, consensus sources.” They also promised to counter “misinformation” and “conspiracy theories” from non-“consensus” sources wherever they found them.
“When Dr. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, tells us what scientists have learned about this infectious disease,” the Christian intelligentsia exhorted their followers, “he should be listened to.”
Who should not be listened to? Scientists outside the “consensus” who were only providing “one person’s theory on YouTube.” In other words, scientists like Bhattacharya and his fellow medical dissidents.
In the closing section of the Love Your Neighbor statement, the signers pledged that “because of their faith in Jesus Christ,” they would:
<ul>
<li>   “Wear Masks” because “Mask rules are not experts taking away our freedom, but an opportunity to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 6:31).”</li>
<li>   “Get vaccinated” because “Vaccination is a provision from God” and the vaccines are “safe and effective.”</li>
<li>   “Correct misinformation and conspiracy theories when we encounter them in our social media and communities.” Because “Christians are called to love the truth; we should not be swayed by falsehoods (1 Corinthians 13:6).”</li>
</ul>
In the end, more than 8,000 people, many of whom were pastors and ministry leaders, promised to work against the evidence and arguments Bhattacharya and his Great Barrington colleagues were presenting in order to promote Collins and Fauci’s policies.
As National Review’s Michael Brendan Doherty told me, “The signers were basically saying, ‘We need to treat the Church as a mission field for the Establishment.’”
<h2>A ‘Swift and Devastating Takedown’</h2>
As the signers of the Love Your Neighbor statement were pledging to combat scientific “misinformation,” Fauci and Collins were working behind the scenes to make sure that Bhattacharya and other experts who questioned their policies would be viewed as purveyors of it.
In <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/12/23/at-a-time-when-the-u-s-needed-covid-19-dialogue-between-scientists-francis-collins-moved-to-shut-it-down/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">private emails</a> in October 2020, Collins deemed Bhattacharya and his fellow Great Barrington authors “fringe epidemiologists” and urged Fauci to make sure that a “swift and devastating takedown” of their work would be published.
That didn’t mean seriously engaging with the scientific argument presented in the Declaration — neither Collins nor Fauci ever did that. Instead, it meant relying on media connections to ensure it was dismissed as quackery.
Bhattacharya is hardly the only Christian physician who weathered reputational damage due, in part, to Christian leaders warning their flocks to stay away from conspiracy theorists. For example, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and pastor in Maui, had his medical license <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/doctor-warns-of-medical-totalitarianism-amid-covid-19-crackdown.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put under review</a> for questioning the wisdom of administering vaccines to children.
But Bhattacharya was arguably the best known. And the professional risks he ran were serious.
At the height of the frenzy to suppress “misinformation,” posters with his picture were <a href="https://www.berkshireeagle.com/coronavirus/those-who-penned-great-barrington-declaration-a-year-after-it-sparked-worldwide-firestorm-this-is/article_b862f134-2619-11ec-81eb-93dc5df41642.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plastered</a> around Stanford’s campus alongside Florida’s COVID mortality numbers. The implication was that because DeSantis followed his advice to resist most restrictions, Bhattacharya had caused excessive deaths in the state. Since then, <a href="https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/blog/states-ranked-by-age-adjusted-covid-deaths/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">age-adjusted statistics</a> have proved Florida, in fact, came out in the middle of the pack, behind states that employed much more severe measures. And Florida fared better economically.
During the time Bhattacharya was publicly arguing against lockdowns and mandates, his fellow faculty members circulated petitions against him, implying his divergent opinion that masks do not stop the disease from spreading was “putting lives at risk.” As even the CDC now acknowledges, he turned out to be correct.
<h2>‘It Devastated the Poor and That Was Deeply Immoral’</h2>
When I ask Bhattacharya about efforts church leaders undertook to shut down debate, he answers from the perspective of both a doctor and a Christ follower. “Scientists and scientific leaders should allow debate to happen, not misrepresent that the debate is already settled and then essentially trick Christian churches into following them,” he tells me.
To the idea that “get[ting] the shot” was synonymous with “lov[ing] your neighbor,” he says it was always erroneous: “From a basic scientific perspective, for a church to say that [COVID] vaccination is an act of love because you&#8217;re protecting other people is just not factually correct.”
Now that revelations are emerging that scientists knew early on that the vaccines did not prevent transmission, time has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/it-was-the-mandates-not-the-fine-print-fact-checkers-miss-point-in-rush-to-defend-pfizer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vindicated</a> Bhattacharya on that point as well.
He stresses that the argument so many pastors and theologians made that official COVID polices reduced harm to the “least of these” was also deeply flawed.
“The lockdowns essentially were a policy that privileged the rich laptop class,” he says. “The BioLogos statement had it exactly backwards. It was the policy pushed by Francis Collins that destroyed the poor, destroyed the vulnerable, destroyed the working class.”
To Bhattacharya’s point, a U.N. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56425115" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> in March 2021 estimated that 230,000 children died from starvation in South Asia due to COVID lockdown disruptions.
“There&#8217;s millions of people who have starved as a consequence of economic dislocation caused by the lockdowns,” Bhattacharya says.  “And the World Bank issued reports suggesting that almost 100 million additional people were thrown into poverty due to loss of income. That&#8217;s what I call trickle down epidemiology. The idea is you protect the rich and somehow that&#8217;ll trickle down and help protect the poor. But in fact it&#8217;s the opposite. It devastated the poor and that was deeply immoral.”
While Bhattacharya says he still admires Collins and prays for him, he believes the former NIH director abused his position both as a public health official and as a trusted Christian voice.
“[Collins] said, ‘Look, because I have this authority, not only can I render a verdict on science, but I can also use that verdict to guide the morality of the church and the moral teaching of the Church. I think it&#8217;s just an extraordinary position for one man to take on himself,” Bhattacharya says.
As for the church leaders who signed the BioLogos statement and platformed Collins to suggest that taking a side in an unfolding scientific debate was a Christian duty, Bhattacharya&#8217;s bewildered that they ever could have thought it was a responsible decision.
“It’s one thing to have a public health campaign to help people know how to get vaccinated,” he says, “But to tie that to moral behavior — to say, ‘If you don&#8217;t get vaccinated. You&#8217;re a bad guy, you&#8217;re sinning…’” He blows out breath, struggling to find words. “I mean, that, that&#8217;s really… That&#8217;s really dangerous.”

President Biden Visits The National Institutes Of Health

How Church Leaders Aligned With Fauci To Discredit Experts Opposed To COVID Mandates

Christians

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fauci-raked-in-the-largest-taxpayer-funded-salary-of-2019">highest-paid</a> federal worker &#8212; yes, he makes more than the president &#8212; has a serious disdain for the American people.
When COVID first hit U.S. shores, Fauci was instrumental in forcing federal officials to shut down &#8230; well, everything. The economy imploded, largely as a result of his Debbie Downer advice, but he couldn&#8217;t have cared less.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Debbie Downer: Disney World - SNL" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TfE93xON8jk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Now a new book captures Fauci&#8217;s cavalier attitude in the early days of the pandemic, and his clear hubris about the power he has to mold all those silly elected politicians to bend to his will.
“Vignettes &amp; Vino,&#8221; by former White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern, a deputy press secretary for President Donald Trump, and his wife, Teresa, details how Fauci acted in those early days.
“[I]n January 2020, [Fauci] said the virus was nothing to worry about for the American people. Then in the months that followed, he said that people should not wear masks and that they were ineffective. By June or July, he had changed his tune and said everyone should be very concerned and that they should wear multiple masks — and goggles,” Morgenstern wrote, <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/20/fauci-mocked-ass-backwards-diners-for-removing-masks-at-table/">according</a> to the New York Post.
“I vividly recall my blood boiling during an infuriating meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, when Fauci laughed about his own goggles comment, making it clear how cynical he was and that he could get people to believe anything,” the former aide continued.
“He went on to laugh about how ‘ass-backwards’ it was that people entered a restaurant wearing a mask, then sat down and conversed with people without a mask. Of course, he wasn’t saying things to that effect publicly, just laughing privately at the American rubes he was fooling.”
In case you doubt that, there&#8217;s this: 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 <a href="https://youtu.be/PRa6t_e7dgI">CBS News</a>.
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 <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/25/dr-fauci-double-mask-during-covid-makes-common-sense-more-effective.html">NBC News</a>.
Duh. Wrong again. In fact, mask-wearing has been proven to be barely effective, especially with the Omicron variant.
Although Fauci allegedly laughed about his own goggles comment, he <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/dr-fauci-wear-goggles-eye-shields-prevent-spread/story?id=72059055">told</a> ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, sure, use &#8217;em.
“If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it,” Fauci told Ashton in July 2020. “It might, if you really want perfect protection of the mucosal surfaces.”
Fauci pushed masks for everyone everywhere, but then he showed up to throw the first pitch out at a Washington Nationals game with a mask halfway down his face.
Fauci, 81, will retire in December after 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. And he&#8217;ll draw the highest federal pension of any government employee &#8212; more than President Joe Biden.
Sounds about right for The Swamp.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci Mocked ‘Ass-Backwards’ Restaurant Diners Who Took Masks Off At Table, New Book Says

Fauci Mocked 'Ass-Backwards' Restaurant Diners Who Took Masks Off At Table, New Book Says

Biden Administration

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