Our Dr. Anthony Fauci certainly is a well-rounded individual: He has enough positions for any 10 men, changing them like clothes a bit like Superman in the phone booth.
Perhaps this is why his latest comforting counsel, that Americans don’t need another COVID-19 lockdown “if,” isn’t really all that comforting after all.
The “if,” by the way, is if we embrace “five or six fundamental public health measures,” such as wearing masks and social distancing.
Making his comments Wednesday on Politico’s Pulse Check podcast, Dr. Asterisk (*Views subject to change without notice) told host Dan Diamond that there “seems to be a misperception that either you shut down completely and damage a lot of things — mental health, the economy, all kinds of things — or let it rip and do whatever you want.”
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“You don’t have to lock down again, but everybody has got to be on board for doing these five or six fundamental public health measures,” Fauci further stated.
“I think we can get through this without having to revert back to a shutdown” if we all wear masks, socially distance, follow hand-washing guidelines, and avoid crowds, the doctor elaborated (video below). “When you have a weak link, then the whole system is unsuccessful.”
Host Diamond’s opening commentary in the above video epitomizes the problem. He begins with what’s assuredly a falsehood and then trades on a fallacy, the former being the claim that more than 150,000 Americans have died of the Wuhan coronavirus.
In reality, this number is inflated. Authorities have been including deaths from other causes — such as the flu (history’s deadliest virus) — in the SARS-CoV-2 death total, perhaps because doing so sometimes brings hospitals more money.
In other words, people who’ve simply died with the virus have sometimes been listed as dying of the virus. But just as there are more men dying with prostate cancer than of prostate cancer, these are two totally different things.
Next, Diamond mentions that there are 50,000 or more new infections in our country every day. This sure sounds scary. It’s largely an irrelevant statistic, however.
Only when considering the testing, hospitalization, morality, and case mortality rates is the 50,000 figure placed in perspective. Obviously, testing far more people leads to a higher (known) “infection rate.” But as long as fewer people are getting seriously ill and dying, this is a good development.
After all, this yields the natural, widespread “vaccination” known as herd immunity, and this brings us to the Corona Con.
I still remember — though our COVID-1984 regime will no doubt find a cure for inconveniently good memories — the original pretext for the lockdowns. Experts said that while the restrictions wouldn’t stop long-term spread, they would reduce its rate (rapidity) and would thus prevent the dreaded overloading of the healthcare system.
But then the models predicting that overload, even those factoring in mitigation measures, were shown to have been flawed.
The overload was never going to happen.
So the lockdowns were not just a bust; they were a bust that busted America, unnecessarily, with studies showing that not only don’t these measures save lives, but that they can actually cause more death than the pandemic would.
Apropos to this, Sweden never locked down and is seeing its Wuhan virus cases drop dramatically (for those touting infection rate); meanwhile, the disease is spreading in locked-down European countries.
This explains why the powers-that-be, despite the above, double down on the pandemic panic: Admitting they severely damaged their nation — destroying countless businesses and lives and causing death — would fatally indict their judgment and end their political careers. So what is an addicted-to-power demagogue to do?
Well, “Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia,” wrote Orwell in 1984 — and we will always be at war with The Virus™.
So Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director who basks in the glow of being a medical savior, is still at it. He was all for masks after he was against them, even though some studies indicate that our versions of Linus’s security blanket aren’t effective at population level; in fact, it has been theorized that they may actually be spreading the virus.
Fauci flip-flops also include reversals on travel bans, school closures, and whether the virus threat is serious. He hasn’t yet flip-flopped on the drug hydroxychloroquine (but give him time), his opposition to which — along with other bad prescriptions — have cost lives, according to a Tuesday article by virologist Steven Hatfill.
As Fox News host Jesse Watters put it in May, you have to wonder if Fauci is running for office because he flip-flops “more than a politician.” Yet he is running for something.
After all, one thing Fauci apparently hasn’t flip-flopped on is his determination to stay at the NIAID. He has been there, do know, for a staggering 52 years — and government careers don’t last that long unless you’re more Machiavelli than Marcus Welby, M.D.
Image of Anthony Fauci: Screenshot from a YouTube video by Politico
Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The New American for more than a decade. He has also written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, American Thinker, and many other print and online publications. In addition, he has contributed to college textbooks published by Gale-Cengage Learning, has appeared on television, and is a frequent guest on radio.
