Dr. Anthony Fauci — director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease — reportedly laughed at the “American rubes he was fooling” by some of the COVID-19 policies he promoted.
Thankfully, there were enough leaders, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, that questioned his policies so the United States didn’t go completely COVID crazy.
The account of Fauci mocking Americans comes from former Trump White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern’s book “Vignettes & Vino” due out on Oct. 25.
Morgenstern described Fauci as “awful” and an “egomaniac” in the book, according to the New York Post.
“[I]n January 2020, [Fauci] said the virus was nothing to worry about for the American people. Then in the months that followed, he said that people should not wear masks and that they were ineffective. By June or July, he had changed his tune and said everyone should be very concerned and that they should wear multiple masks — and goggles,” Morgenstern wrote.
After 600+ days of ineffective lockdowns & mandates, 3 things are certain with Dr. Fauci:
He flips. He flops. He fails.
To commemorate Fauci’s flip flopping, we’re launching EXCLUSIVE Freedom Over Fauci Flip Flops on our Team DeSantis storefront. 👀⬇️🚨https://t.co/CwBvzv4uqo pic.twitter.com/NCL07fwyBV
— Team DeSantis 🐊 (@teamrondesantis) January 21, 2022
“I vividly recall my blood boiling during an infuriating meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, when Fauci laughed about his own goggles comment, making it clear how cynical he was and that he could get people to believe anything,” Morgenstern continued.
“He went on to laugh about how ‘ass-backwards’ it was that people entered a restaurant wearing a mask, then sat down and conversed with people without a mask. Of course, he wasn’t saying things to that effect publicly, just laughing privately at the American rubes he was fooling.”
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While Fauci reportedly laughed behind the scenes about wearing goggles and other protective measures, on camera he was quite serious about it.
In late July 2020, he told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, “If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci to @DrJAshton : “If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it. It’s not universally recommended, but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can.” https://t.co/G8GrQyoJal pic.twitter.com/OpOf9tC6q4
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020
“It’s not universally recommended, but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can,” he added.
In a live interview with The Atlantic Wednesday, Fauci defended his COVID-19 policy recommendations including the lockdowns.
“You have to do something that’s rather draconian, and sometimes when you do draconian things, it has collateral negative consequences,” he said, noting hospital intensive care units were being overrun during the early months of the outbreak.
“It does have deleterious consequences on the economy and school children. You know that but you have to make a balance,” Fauci added.
Fauci admits he knew school kids would suffer as a result of “draconian” shut downs and yet advocated for them anyway for two years. Despicable. https://t.co/oRZz324ldq
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) September 21, 2022
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been one of Fauci’s most outspoken critics, pressed the infectious disease expert during a Senate hearing last week on his failure to more definitively acknowledge natural immunity.
Paul played a clip from a 2004 C-Span interview in which Fauci said regarding the flu “the most potent vaccination is getting infected yourself.”
“Currently antibody surveys show that 80 percent of children, approximately 80 percent of children have had COVID and yet there are no guidelines coming from you or anybody in the government to take into account their naturally acquired immunity,” Paul said.
In today’s hearing, I showed a video of Dr. Fauci claiming natural immunity is “The most potent vaccination.”
Fauci tried to use the corporate media to defend himself, but words don’t lie. pic.twitter.com/8iP4wShqnJ
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) September 14, 2022
Fauci responded that a vaccination after an infection “gives an added extra boost.”
Paul countered that almost none of the studies the federal government has conducted take into account the “variable of whether or not you’ve been previously infected.”
“If you ignore whether they’ve been infected, you’re ignoring a vaccine basically,” he argued. “People decry vaccine hesitancy; it’s coming from the gobbledygook that you’ve given us.”
“You’re not paying attention to the science. The very basic science is that previous infection provides a level of immunity,” Paul said.
The senator is right to call Fauci out.
Morgenstern in his book is right to do so too.
What Americans needed more than anything during COVID was the truth or an admission from experts like Fauci when matters were still unknown.
What we got too often were universal, draconian policies on masking, vaccinations and lockdowns that may not have been necessary.