OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, has an alarming history of hypocrisy, flip-flops, and failed predictions. This has left many Americans untrusting and skeptical of him.
Fauci is doubling down on his criticism of President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on CBS, Fauci accused Trump of having a “misplaced perception” about people’s individual rights. He said this hurt public safety during the coronavirus pandemic.
Host Ted Koppel asked, “Could it have been different? If the president had led in a different way?”
Fauci responded, “The answer to that is yes. But when you have leadership, you know, denying that something is a serious as it is, then you have a real problem. In that respect, it could have gone differently.”
Koppel asked, “Does it border on criminal?”
Fauci said, “I wouldn’t say that because, you know, that generates a lot of, you know, unnecessary sound biting.”
“It’s something as a public health official, in mind is serious. For example, one of the things that to me was most difficult to accept is that we put together a good plan for how we were going to try and dampen down the spread of infection early on, thinking that that was accepted by everybody.”
Fauci continued, “And then, the next day, you have the president saying, ‘Free Michigan. Free Virginia.’ I didn’t quite understand what the purpose of that was, except to put this misplaced perception about people’s individual right to make a decision that supersedes the societal safety.”
“That, to me, is one of the things that, I think, went awry in all of this,” Fauci added.
Koppel asked, “Did you ever raise that with President Trump?”
“You know, I didn’t have the opportunity to raise it. I was sort of, like, shocked, and then I didn’t speak to him for some time after that.”
Fauci concluded, “But it was at that point that I realized that I would have to just get out there myself and say things that clearly were going to be contradictory – that it was much worse than we are saying it was, that it’s not going to go away tomorrow, it’s not going to disappear like magic.”
Some left-leaning networks are beginning to find it difficult to support Fauci’s comments.
A recent report on NBC’s “Today” brutally fact-checked Fauci’s claim about a significant COVID-19 surge resulting from crowded football stadiums.
The surge “never happened,” NBC reporter Shaquille Brewster confirmed. “Cases are now in steep decline in every college football state across the south.”
“Including Florida, where hospitalizations fell 64 percent last month, even as some 90,000 fans packed the [University of Florida] Gators’ stadium,” Brewster said.
“For weeks, crowds in the tens of thousands, mostly unmasked, have sat side-by-side now cheering on their teams at the halfway point of the season,” Brewster reported.
“All while doctors warned of games becoming potential super-spreader events. A frightening prospect at the time with hospitals already on the brink.”
Despite Fauci’s prediction, packed stadiums for sporting events have not become “super-spreader events” for the coronavirus.
Watch the clip:
A little shocking! NBC report on how college football games are NOT "superspreader" events includes video of Joy Reid and Dr. Fauci sounding panicky notes. Ooooops. https://t.co/H8Bc2GoiPw pic.twitter.com/tjqapmVA2w
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) October 16, 2021
