Dr. Fauci Admits He's Been Moving the Goalposts on COVID on Purpose
Dr. Anthony Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He quickly became America’s go to guru on all things related to the pandemic.
Back in March, Dr. Fauci told us that in order to achieve herd immunity in the U.S., 60 to 70 percent of Americans would need to acquire resistance to COVID-19, “either through infection or vaccination.” In recent appearances, however, his earlier estimate has gradually increased to the 80 to 85 percent level. And Fauci readily admits he’s been moving the goalposts.
The New York Times reports, “About a month ago, he began saying ‘70, 75 percent’ in television interviews. And last week, in an interview with CNBC News, he said ‘75, 80, 85 percent’ and ‘75 to 80-plus percent.'”
“In a telephone interview the next day, Dr. Fauci acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts. He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks,” the Times reported.
“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent,” Fauci said during a telephone interview with the Times. “Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”
“We need to have some humility here,” he said. “We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent.”
He won’t say 90 percent, he told the Times, because he’s “not sure there will be enough voluntary acceptance of vaccines to reach that goal.”
According to the Times, approximately 20 percent of Americans are opposed to taking a vaccine. The Washington Post reported on a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, released on Dec. 15, which found that 15 percent of those surveyed “definitely won’t get vaccinated.”
So is Dr. Fauci basing his expert opinion on how Americans “feel” about taking the vaccine, rather than on the science behind it? It sure seems like it.
And are his changing numbers inspired by shifts in poll results, in other words, politics, instead of science? It sure appears that way.
In March, we were told to quarantine for 15 days to flatten the curve. This measure was introduced to keep U.S. hospitals from being overwhelmed with large numbers of coronavirus patients. On March 13, three days before the nationwide lockdown began, USA TODAY presented the results of their analysis which warned that “if the nation sees a major spike, there could be almost six seriously ill patients for every existing hospital bed.”
Now, the 60 to 70 percent requirement to achieve herd immunity is turning into 90 percent. That isn’t how public health should work.
Fauci tells the Times that “a herd-immunity figure at 90 percent or above is in the range of the infectiousness of measles.” He adds, “I’d bet my house that Covid isn’t as contagious as measles.”
Give it to us straight Dr. Fauci. You’re supposed to be the expert. Americans deserve to know the truth so they may make their own decisions on how to handle it.
The truth is that with incomplete information, it may be impossible for even an expert to determine the precise amount of acquired resistance in the population necessary to achieve herd immunity. The problem is that Fauci has been ratcheting up his estimates based upon decidedly non-scientific data. Or more accurately, he’s been basing his assessments on politics.
This is not new for him. Over the last year, Fauci has given Americans mixed and even conflicting messages. On March 8, in an interview with 60 Minutes, he said, “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
In a January 21 interview with Newsmax, he was asked, “Bottom line, we don’t have to worry about this one, right?”
He responded, “Well, you know, obviously, you need to take it seriously and do the kinds of things that the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security are doing. But this is not a major threat (emphasis added) for the people of the United States, and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.”
In the meantime, Fauci has been elevated to heroes’ status. It’s time Americans stop taking all of this man’s statements as the gospel. Ridiculously, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser went so far as to proclaim Christmas Eve “Dr. Fauci Day.”
Unfortunately, Fauci will assume the role of chief medical adviser in the Biden administration.
Isn’t it time for this career bureaucrat’s 15 minutes of fame to end and for our lives to get back in order?
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