Kirsten Fleming

Kirsten Fleming

 Opinion

Fauci’s God complex destroyed trust in American institutions

By
Kirsten Fleming
Published June 4, 2024, 6:00 a.m. ET

It look🌱s like the self-professed 🐓human embodiment of science is also full of you-know-what.

Ahead of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s public testimony Monday before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Republicans released a transcript of their January sit-down with the pandemic poobah.

And, boy, was it revelatory.

Dr. Anthony Fauci testifying.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has admitted that some of his COVID recommendations weren’t backed by data. REUTERS

In it, he essentially admitted major parts of his prescript♓ion f💫or the public were not, in fact, backed by science — in particular, masking children and the social-distancing mandate of 6 feet as t൩he magic mitigator.

The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who ret꧃ired in December 2022 after decades at the helm, was pressed on how the 6-foot standard came to be.

“You know, I don’t recall,” he said. “It sort of just appeared.”

Asked if he recalled any studies that supported it, he said: “I was not aware of studies that … in fact would be a very difficult study to do.”

Maybe someone just liked the number 6?

As for recalling any data that supported masks for children as young as 2, Fauci was unabl💃e to definitively say.

A sign saying, "Please stay 6 ft apart."
During the COVID pandemic, Americans were told to stay 6 feet apart. But Fauci says he can’t recall where that number came from. Christopher Sadowski

“I might have … but I don’t recall specifically that I did,” he said.

“Was there ever a cost-benefit analysis done o꧃n the unintended consequences of masking k💙ids versus the protection that it would give them?” a committee staff member asked him.

Fauci’s reply: “Not to my knowledge.”

A sign urging people to mask and stay six feet apart.
During COVID, masking and social distancing signs were ubiquitous. AP

So he was just spitballing some of this — while simultaneously telling “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd in 2021 that criticism of him was “really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you are attacking science.”

In Monday’s hearings, Rep. Brad Wenstrup 🐈(R-Ohio) got to the heart of our anger with Fauci.

“Americans were ไaggressively bullied, 𒉰shamed and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of COVID,” Wenstrup said.

A young girl wearing a pandemic mask in a classroom.
Children as young as 2 were being told to mask up during the pandemic. Xinhua News Agency via Getty Ima

The House committee grilled Fauci on emails from his ex-senior adviser Dr. David Moreဣns that showed Morens used pඣrivate email to dodge records requests and evade transparency🐻.

In one, Morens wrote: “I learned from our foia [Freedom of Information Act] lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d but before the search starts, so i think we are all safe. Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to [personal] gmail.”

Fauci said of Morens, “I knew nothing of his actions.”

Kids and parents in masks protesting school closures in New York City.
Parents and kids outside Manhattan’s Gracie Mansion protested the closure of public school due to COVID cases — while private schools remained open. Matthew McDermott

It seems there were a few consequential things he knew “nothing of.”

In the early weeks of the pandemic, I admired and trusted Fauci — thinking he stood for ꦰcontinuity, experience and restraint. In such ꧑an unprecedented time, it felt like having a steady hand at the wheel.

But as two weeks to stop the spread turned into two years of moving the goalposts — and making up different metrics until we could return to normal — it was clear the doctor 🐈was developing a God complex. And much of our media became higher clergy genuflecting at every turn.

Many adherents found in Fauci a religious purpose, with a mask and a needle serving as virtue symbols and “Trust the science” as their main recitation.

Anyone with questions or objections was a h💝eret🧔ic to be shamed.

We were forced to mold our society around these arbitrary and draconian rules. Children’s test scores went down; school absenteeism and depression shot up. Parents who advocated for schools to reopen were ostracized and called “grandma killers.”

Anthony Fauci with a mask on his chin at a baseball game.
Anthony Fauci (center), who was a proponent of masking, let one hang off his face while at a baseball game, an image many saw as a sign of his hypocrisy. AP

The 6-foot method shaped our mentality on everything from business to social gatherings, effectively making connections imp🃏ossible and creating a pandemic of loneliness. People lost their jobs for refusing to get a jab.

And yes, we can also blame American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingꦓar𓃲ten and many blue state governors, who were all Fauci’s dutiful disciples.

Personally, I could have deal💜t with a misstep or two. COVID-19 was a novel virus,꧂ and we were all learning in real time. But there was no humility and no openness from Fauci & Co. — only suppression and control.

Randi Weingarten at a hearing.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was integral in keeping schools closed. AP

It’s ironic now, but in 2021, Fauci actually said to Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation,” “If you damage science, you are doing something very detrimental to society long after I leave. And that’s what I worry about.”

He leavesඣ in his wake a tidal wave of Ameri൲can distrust in institutions. And an absolute inability to see his role in dissolving that trust.