Perhaps the most difficult three words to say in the English language are “I was wrong.” Admitting our mistakes is just as difficult as admitting we are flawed and sinful human beings in need of forgiveness.
The latest example of this is Dr. Anthony Fauci. Three years ago, nearly no one in America knew his name, but today he is the most well-known and recognized face in public health. In the early days of the Covid pandemic in 2020, he was on our television screens daily dishing out his advice on how to minimize the impact of a novel coronavirus we now call Covid-19.
Three years later we now know that much of that advice was simply wrong. When thousands of physicians and scientists signed the Great Barrington Declaration to register their disapproval of Fauci’s methods, he dismissed their arguments, with the help of a complacent media.
Now we see the devastating results of his school lockdowns in declining test scores and grade deficiencies throughout our nation. Many children have lost at least a year of their education, a loss that may have devastating impact on their futures. Despite his advice, thousands died of Covid anyway and the economy crashed. Masks have been shown to be virtually worthless in most situations and the vaccines, while good at preventing fatal disease, did little to slow the spread of the virus. Most of what Fauci told us proved to be wrong.
But now he is trying to rewrite history. James Freeman, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says the country’s most forceful advocate for shuttering U.S. society is pretending he was inconsequential. Freeman says, “To make his new case, Dr. Fauci has chosen the friendly forum of the New York Times, which also isn’t eager to accept responsibility for panicked responses to Covid. To expose the falsity of Dr. Fauci’s attempt to avoid responsibility for the consequences of his actions and advice, one doesn’t even need to look beyond the pages of the New York Times. Not that the paper was holding him to account. He was often cast as a heroic figure as he pushed back against those who tried to warn of the great harms of closing society. Dr. Fauci wasn’t deferring to economic experts or even to medical experts who didn’t share his Covid prescription – he was using his powerful perch to forcefully rebut them. And he largely succeeded, to the great detriment of America’s children.”
Fauci, and his fellow government disease doctor Deborah Birx, seemed to have no ability to view the larger issues, being solely focused on Covid. As a result, other threats to health, such as mental illness and cancer, skyrocketed in the wake of reduced access to mental health and primary care physicians. Rates of depression, suicide and drug abuse accelerated due to the lockdowns but these other health hazards garnered little attention from Fauci and Birx. Cancer screenings plummeted, so naturally cancer deaths rose since early detections were eliminated.
Dr. Fauci, who spent a career as an unelected head of a government agency, now claims he never criticized those who had to make decisions. But at the time he felt comfortable challenging even those who were both elected officials and medical doctors. The New York Times reported:
“If we keep kids out of school for another year, what’s going to happen is the poor and underprivileged kids who don’t have a parent that’s able to teach them at home will not get to learn for a full year,” said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky. Dr. Fauci pushed back, saying that the virus’s effect on children is still not well understood, and that recent cases of children who have tested positive and developed a serious inflammatory syndrome was worrisome. “We really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children,” he said.
Too bad he didn’t listen to Senator and Dr. Rand Paul.
