OPINION
It appears that the medical experts that the Trump Administration has come to rely upon for advice and counsel may have very well been snookered from day one by the World Health Organization and China.
And now Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appears to be covering his own backside.
During a CNN interview on Sunday Fauci was asked if earlier action had been taken on social distancing and stay-at-home policies could have saved lives.
“It’s very difficult to go back and say that. I mean, obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives,” he said. “Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated.”
During the interview, Fauci revealed that the government had been advised to begin social distancing measures in February, ABC News reported. President Trump announced plans to roll out “self-isolating” in mid March.
“We look at it from a pure health standpoint,” Fauci said. “We make a recommendation, often the recommendation is taken, sometimes it’s not.
“But, it is what it is.”
So what is it, exactly?
In January Fauci was telling Americans they had nothing to worry about.
“It’s a very, very low risk to the United States,” Fauci said during a radio interview.
“But it’s something that we as public health officials need to take very seriously… It isn’t something the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about. Because we have ways of preparing and screening of people coming in [from China]. And we have ways of responding – like we did with this one case in Seattle, Washington, who had traveled to China and brought back the infection.”
It isn’t something the American public needs to worry about, he said.
In a separate interview with Greg Kelly of Newsmax he stressed that the virus was not a big issue.
“This is not a major threat to the people of the United States and this is not something that the citizens of the United States should be worried about right now,” Dr. Fauci told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on January 21.
Real Clear Politics reported on an interview Fauci did with the Journal of the American Medical Association – again downplaying the virus.
And on Feb. 17 he told the USA Today editorial board that the threat to Americans was “miniscule.”
“We have more kids dying of flu this year at this time than in the last decade or more,” he said. “At the same time people are worrying about going to a Chinese restaurant. The threat is (we have) a pretty bad influenza season, particularly dangerous for our children.”
He also advised American against purchasing masks — again on Feb. 17th.
“If you look at the masks that you buy in a drug store, the leakage around that doesn’t really do much to protect you,” he said. “People start saying, ‘Should I start wearing a mask?’ Now, in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask.”
As late as Jan. 24 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the coronavirus posed no immediate threat to the nation.
“This is not a major threat…”
WATCH ?: Dr. Anthony Fauci’s original thoughts about the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak are revisited from a January interview with Newsmax TV’s @gregkellyusa. pic.twitter.com/0KmHxxkeBp
— Newsmax (@newsmax) April 3, 2020
CBS described Fauci as the nation’s point man on the avian flu.
In 2005 Fauci, described as the nation’s point man on the avian flu, told CBS’ 60 Minutes that the nation was not ready to deal with a pandemic.
“Right now, and we all admit that, right now if we had an explosion of an H5N1 we would not be prepared for that,” he said.
In other words the nation’s top infectious disease expert has known for 15 years that the we were unprepared to handle a global pandemic — and he did nothing about it.
And now he’s trying to blame President Trump. #FireFauci, Mr. President.