OPINION:
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said in a recent Senate panel that when it comes to giving COVID-19 direction, he’s all medicine and science and health care and facts, all the time — zero politics, zero economics.
What a crock of crock.
This guy’s as political as they come.
Fauci may not come out and explicitly state, “We need to keep schools closed,” or “We need to keep people confined in their homes.” But he might as well have.
He might as well state just that.
Fauci’s king of the 99 percent truth, one percent lie; what’s more, he knows how that particular recipe plays in the press. And he exploits it with sheer abandon.
Here’s how Fauci operates: He speaks about the numbers as they’re tied to COVID-19 cases. He floats a scientific concern about the potential for a worsening situation — better known as planting a fear. ’Cause anything, after all, can get worse. He’s asked a question from a talking media head about what those numbers mean. And then he jumps, feet first, arms a’waving, eyeballs a’glazing, right into political swampland.
His words generate headlines like this, from MassLive in mid-May: “Dr. Anthony Fauci cautions that coronavirus can impact children, says schools should reopen on regional basis.”
That’s not science; that’s education policy. Of course the coronavirus can impact children — so can staying home due to the coronavirus. But those are decisions better left to the education folk, the political folk, my gosh, how about the parent-folk — not the science guy.
“I’m a scientist, a physician and a public health official,” Fauci said. “I don’t give advice about economic things.”
No?
Another headline stemming from Fauci’s words, this time from CNN from April: “Fauci: ’I don’t understand why’ every state hasn’t issued stay-at-home orders.”
That’s not science; that’s not advice from a physician. That’s economic policy.
And now, his latest — another headline from CNN from just this week: “Fauci says he wears a mask to be a symbol of what ’you should be doing.’”
In the story, Fauci practically admitted his face masking wasn’t so much one of science but of cultural messaging — or virtue signaling.
“I want to protect myself and protect others,” he said — on surface, sounding scientific, while outright ignoring the unsound scientific argument for the mass wearing of face masks in public. And then he added this: “And also because I want to make it be a symbol for people to see that that’s the kind of thing you should be doing.”
That’s not science; that’s virtue signaling. That’s guilting and shaming citizens into obeying a personal will.
That’s using one’s so-called science and medical and health bureaucratic platform to bring about a private agenda — a political agenda. And Fauci’s so skilled at sliding in the politics while throwing hands in air and claiming he’s not political, he ought to run for political office.
He’s a natural.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.