Bret Baier Presses NIH Director Over ‘Silencing Opposing Views’ on COVID

While the left-wing media has relentlessly bashed the right for politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic, they won’t admit their own role in pushing politics into a public health crisis. On however Fox News SundayBret Baier, host of Bret Baier, confronted Anthony Fauci, outgoing director at NIH. The emails showed that Fauci colluded and shared information with Anthony Fauci (a fellow media favourite) to silence scientists who had opposing views about how to fight COVID-19.

That outgoing NIH Director, Francis Collins was blaming “social media” “misinformation” and “politics” for 50,000 Americans not yet vaccinated, when Baier pointed out how the government was also playing politics with this virus.

He read to the esteemed scientific official one of his own e-mails to Fauci in October of 2020, released under the FOIA by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis last week, where Collins expressed the need for a “quick and devastating public takedown” of a document signed by thousands of scientists and health experts disagreeing with current COVID-19 policies [click “expand”]:

Dr. Collins we always hear ‘follow the science.’ and you know science is observation, description, experimentation and explanation but it seems that a lot of health policymakers have been trying to silence opposing views, in a newly released set of e-mails received from the Freedom of Information Act, between you and Dr. Fauci in October of 2020, you referenced the Great Barrington Declaration, that was a group of epidemiologists and public health scientists who wrote, “We have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of prevailing COVID-19 policies,” continuing, “Current lockdown policies are producting devastating effects on short and long term public health.” In this email to Dr. Fauci and Cliff Lane at NIH, you wrote, ‘Hi Tony and Cliff, see,’ and you connect to the Great Barrington Declaration link– ‘this proposal from three fringe epidemiologists who met with the Secretary seems to be getting a lot of attention, and even a cosignature from a Nobel Prize winner, Michael Leavitt at Stanford. It is urgent that the premises be destroyed by the public. I don’t see anything like that online yet, is it underway?Francis.’ Did you write that? 

“Did you write that?” Baier simply asked.

The NIH director fervently defended his e-mail, saying that “hundreds of thousands of people would’ve died” if we had followed the suggestions in that proposal, and that “crazy proposals on the basis of pseudoscience” “need to be called out.”

Collins’ fears were unfounded. In this country we have already passed the 800,000 mark for Covid deaths, despite locking downs, social ditancing and masking as well as vaccines. 

Baier followed up this question by pointing out how the media and health experts aren’t just censoring nonsense, they also made a concerted effort to squash the rational and reasonable lab leak theory that would implicate China. 

He said, “It’s true, but it seems that the track just continues with early attempts to downplay or discredit Wuhan’s lab theory. Why spend the time doing that when we’re talking about observation, description, experimentation and explanation? It seems that the possibility of a lab leakage is real.

Yet Collins remarkably dismissed the lab leak idea as a “huge distraction” that was less likely than the bat wet market idea:

Bret I’m really sorry the lab leak has become a distraction for so many people because frankly we still don’t know there is no evidence  really to say–most of the scientific community–myself included, think that is a possibility but far more likely this was a natural way in which a virus left a bat may traveled through some other species and got to humans and there was no lab leak involved. We won’t know unless China decades to open up about this, which they have not done and shame on them for that. But this has been a huge distraction–

Perhaps sensing that time was running out, Baier cut in to end the interview on something they could both agree on: “Everybody should take this seriously is your bottom line message.”

Below is the transcription

Fox News Sunday

12/19/21

FRANCIS COLLINS, NIH DIRECTOR: It’s really frustrating. In this country, with all of its technological advance, that we still have about 50 million people who haven’t even got started on vaccinations. This is how it happened. What is the best way to mix all this with misinformation, social media and political insertions into the conversation? This frustrates me especially on my last day at NIH director.

BRET BAIER: Dr. Collins we always hear ‘follow the science.’ and you know science is observation, description, experimentation and explanation but it seems that a lot of health policymakers have been trying to silence opposing views, in a newly released set of e-mails received from the Freedom of Information Act, between you and Dr. Fauci in October of 2020, you referenced the Great Barrington Declaration, that was a group of epidemiologists and public health scientists who wrote, “We have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of prevailing COVID-19 policies,” continuing, “Current lockdown policies are producting devastating effects on short and long term public health.” In this email to Dr. Fauci and Cliff Lane at NIH, you wrote, ‘Hi Tony and Cliff, see,’ and you connect to the Great Barrington Declaration link– ‘this proposal from three fringe epidemiologists who met with the Secretary seems to be getting a lot of attention, and even a cosignature from a Nobel Prize winner, Michael Leavitt at Stanford. You must immediately and decisively remove the building from public view. I don’t see anything like that online yet, is it underway?Francis.’ Did you write that? 

COLLINS – I wrote that. 

BAEIER: Why?

COLLINS – And I stand by it. Let me explain. What was being proposed there was basically saying, let’s not worry about mitigation, let’s just let this virus rip. This was obviously before vaccines were available. Basically–these– I’ll call them fringe epidemiologists who really did not have the credentials to be making such a grand sweeping statement were saying, just let the virus run through the population and eventually then everyone will have had it and we will be okay. If we’d followed this strategy, hundreds of thousands would have been killed. So I’m sorry? I was opposed to that and I still am and I’m not going to apologize for that. People sometimes make wild proposals on the basis pseudoscience, and this should be condemned.

BAIER:  Right but I guess it just follows this track with the early days downplaying or trying to discredit the lab theory from Wuhan. Why spend the time doing that when we’re talking about observation, description, experimentation and explanation? It seems that the possibility of a lab leakage is real.

COLLINS: Bret I’m really sorry the lab leak has become a distraction for so many people because frankly we still don’t know there is no evidence  really to say–most of the scientific community–myself included, think that is a possibility but far more likely this was a natural way in which a virus left a bat may traveled through some other species and got to humans and there was no lab leak involved. We won’t know unless China decades to open up about this, which they have not done and shame on them for that. But this has been a huge distraction–

BAIER: Basically keep it–everybody should take this seriously is your bottom line message. 

COLLINS: Yes. This is our enemy. It’s not other members of the opposing political party. It’s not people who post crazy conspiracy theories on Facebook. They are the enemy. This is the enemy. It’s been disastrous and the history will punish those who continued to divert attention from real issues and instead focus on falsehoods or conspiracies. It is shameful that this has happened to us all. It is possible to turn it around. It is Christmas, so we should be thankful. Let’s think about how our weary  world could be rejoicing because we have a gift coming to us on Christmas day that ought to be better than any of the things we are talking about right now. We need to come together. 

BAIER: Yeah. Dr. Collins: Merry Christmas and happy holidays, and thanks for your service.

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