On Sunday, Joey SoftServe’s “chief medical adviser,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, made his first major television appearance in several weeks. Throughout the COVID “pandemic,” it was Fauci who cheered on all sorts of bizarre rules that don’t seem to have worked. He disappeared suddenly. (see Also, Has Anyone Seen Anthony Fauci? and Hump Day Cartoon: Where Is Phony Fauci?)
His chosen venue was ABC’s This WeekGeorge Stephanopoulos (an aging Clintonite muppet) hosts.
The apparent reason for the warning was to inform us about the new COVID variation, which they named BA.2, either because of a lack of Greek letters or because no Chinese potentate could be named BA.2.
Fauci’s standards would have deemed it a weak sauce.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve seen this relaxation of restrictions all across the country right now. Is there any reason for that to change?
FAUCI: I don’t think so, George. It’s not right now. I don’t see us going back into any more really very restrict kinds of restrictions. You must always be flexible. When the CDC released their modified metrics that would guide the recommendations of which regions and counties should have a masking inside, it made clear that while you can reduce restrictions on certain areas, if there is a surge in hospitalizations or other significant changes, then we must be ready to adjust some restrictions. But right now, at this point, George, I don’t see that.
It was not scaremongering. Stephanopoulos was not able to make any new information in his interview. He only did it once, which is a sign that Stephanopoulos was doing this more for him than anything.
One has to wonder if the end for Fauci’s career isn’t nearer than we imagine. Once the COVID pandemic stopped being a public health issue and became an exercise in using a “public health emergency” to supplant the Constitution and the legislative process, the mystique associated with Fauci started to wear thin. Fauci’s arrogance and lack of knowledge probably played a greater role in generating public opposition to COVID regulations. His contempt for Members of Congress and Senators who asked tough questions led to some epic encounters (Rand Paul Absolutely Wrecks Fauci’s Unscientific Claim That He Is the Science, Rand Paul Takes a Blowtorch to Dr. Fauci’s Lies and Excuses About Gain of Function Research) led to some epic verbal brawls on Capitol Hill.
.@RandPaulFauci:[T]he idea that a government official like yourself would claim unilaterally to represent science and that any criticism of you would be considered a criticism of science itself is quite dangerous…It is cheap politics & it is reprehensible.” pic.twitter.com/b6JCaaHQTR
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 11, 2022
As more and more documents became public, it became apparent that Fauci had no scruples about lying to Congress on anyone else (BREAKING: Gov’t Docs Prove Fauci Lied to Rand Paul; US Was Funding Gain of Function Research in Wuhan, Senator Rand Paul, Congressman James Comer Send Letter Demanding Answers About NIH Deletion of Gain-Of-Function Information).
Senator Rand Paul vowed to seek Fauci’s removal from office if the GOP takes the Senate in November (Rand Paul Promises a Fauci Reckoning if GOP Wins). Paul has also introduced legislation to eliminate anyone’s ability to imitate Fauci in the future.
GREAT NEWS: Rand Paul Introduces Amendment To Eliminate Fauci’s Position As NIAID Director https://t.co/9QXbJbQoMM
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) March 14, 2022
Kansas senator Roger Marshall created the Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals Act (FAUCI Act) in response to Fauci’s lying about his financial disclosure documents.
Sen. @RogerMarshallMD, would mandate that the financial records for people such as Dr. Fauci be posted on the Office of Government Ethics’ website.
“Fauci has lost his reputation,” Marshall said, after Fauci insulted him.https://t.co/n7RlLm491T
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 16, 2022
Fauci, contrary to what it may seem at times, is an intelligent, bright guy. His scientific advice may be sh**, but he’s a brilliant bureaucratic in-fighter. Fauci can read the winds of 2024 just as well as any other person. Fauci could be used by Rand Paul as a pinata if the GOP takes control of both the House and Senate. There will not be a friendly Democrat chair to rescue him. Fauci will be investigated and the results will prove to be very ugly.
There was an air of farewell in Fauci’s interview. Like, he’s already decided that he’s going to retire, and this was just a soft way of announcing it.
Paul, and other people who might be able to retire from his position will learn from Charles II’s Restoration to the British Crown. Charles I was his father and he had been executed by Parliamentary forces under Oliver Cromwell. When he was invited back to London eleven years later, he wanted to take vengeance on everyone who’d signed his father’s death warrant. Cromwell and twenty-four others had already perished. Charles II made their corpses available for exhumation, hanging, and beheaded. Paul and his friends will continue to harass Fauci even after Fauci is gone, making him spend more time in private to protect his involvement in the production of COVID, and hide that fact from all eyes.
Video transcript
Let’s bring in President Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Fauci, thanks for coming back on “This Week” this morning.
You just heard Nate’s perspective right there, fairly balanced. What’s your take on this BA.2 variant?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and INFECTIOUS Diseases: It has some transmission advantages over the original micron but it is not multifold. So, it’s about 50 to 60 percent or so more transmissible, which means ultimately over time, it might take over as a dominant variant.
Clearly, throughout the world, it’s about 80 plus percent, 85 percent of the isolate. In the United States, it’s still somewhere around 30 percent.
It does indeed have increased transmission capabilities. The cases are not more severe, and do not seem to escape immune response from prior infections or vaccines.
So, the bottom line is we likely will see an uptick in cases as we’ve seen in the European countries, particularly the U.K., where they’ve had the same situation as we’ve had now. They are eligible for BA. They have a relaxation of some restrictions such as indoor masking and there’s a waning of immunity.
Hopefully, we won’t see a surge. I don’t think we will. It is important to keep people vaccinated. To continue to boost the vaccinations of those who are already vaccinated. So, that’s really where we stand right now.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve seen —
FAUCI – We can see an increase.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve seen this relaxation of restrictions all across the country right now. Is there any reason for that to change?
FAUCI: I don’t think so, George. It’s not right now. I don’t see us going back into any more really very restrict kinds of restrictions. You must always be flexible. When the CDC released their modified metrics that would guide the recommendations of which regions and counties should have a masking inside, it made clear that while you can reduce restrictions on certain areas, if there is a surge in hospitalizations or other significant changes, then we must be ready to adjust some restrictions. But right now, at this point, George, I don’t see that.
STEPHANOPOULOS – How can we take advantage of the moment now?
I was struck by something Anne Rimoin, a UCLA epidemiologist, told “The New York Times” this morning, who said we’ve been wearing rose colored glasses instead of correcting our vision.
The point she made was that we should take more initiative. Do you think she has a point? How can we do more to stop another surge?
FAUCI : She makes an excellent point. I mean we only still have about 65 percent of our population has been vaccinated and — of the total population. Only half of the people who qualify for boosters have received them. From a public health perspective, there are many things we can do.
The other thing we can do — and I hope that we get the funding from the Congress to do this, is to continue to build up our supply of anti-virals, of tests and of the ability to get boosted. There are a lot of clinical trials underway that seek to discover the most effective and durable combination for boosting. So, we just can’t stand still, particularly as we appear to be in somewhat of a lull in the cases, where cases continue to come down, deaths continue to come down and hospitalizations. That’s no time at all to declare victory because this virus has fooled us before and we really must be prepared for the possibility that we might get another variant and we don’t want to be caught flatfooted on that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Ashish Jha is going to be the president’s new Covid coordinator, replacing Jeffrey Zients. He’s never worked in government before, as you’ve pointed out. What advice do you have for him and what’s the most important thing he needs to do?
FAUCI: Well, first of all, he’s a very competent person. I mean he’s been involved in this, not in the government, but from the outside. He’s an experienced public health person.
My goal is to understand the workings of government and to come from outside to the government. But he’s going to have a lot of help, a lot of encouragement, a lot of collegiality from people like myself, from Dr. Walensky, from Dr. Murthy and others. So I think he’s going to be just fine.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you’ve said you’re going to stay in this job until we get out of the pandemic phase. Of course you’ve been serving your country now for decades. Are we approaching the point where we are past the pandemic phase and you’ll go get some rest?
FAUCI: I’m not so sure, George. I want to make sure we’re really out of this before I really seriously consider doing anything different. We’re still in this. There is still much to do. I think we’re clearly going in the right direction. We should keep that direction.
STEPHANOPOULOS – Dr. Fauci, thank you for taking the time to provide this information.
FAUCI: We are grateful.
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