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“Stick with the science and never veer from that, even when the science turns out to be an inconvenient truth for somebody.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, then Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, delivered those words to Georgetown students in 2017 as the touchstone of medical ethics.
On Wednesday, before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Fauci replaced that line by repeatedly saying, “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
The optics could not have been worse, but what you saw depended largely on how you viewed the hearing. For critics, Fauci sounded like Crazy Joe Gallo without the sunglasses. For supporters, Fauci is still a hero who refused to fall into a trap laid for him. Democratic senators such as Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., actually praised Fauci for refusing to answer questions before Congress.
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There is no question that it is Fauci’s right to invoke his privilege against self-incrimination, and many advised him to do so. The privilege can be invoked for strategic reasons separate from any criminal culpability. After all, he was given a last-minute pardon by President Joe Biden, and any false statements he made before the committee could be used to bring criminal charges against him.
Some of the most embarrassing areas for Fauci concerned his entries acknowledging that he pushed to close schools, despite public denials that he ever recommended such closures.
However, Fauci is unlike many who have invoked the privilege. Unlike many past witnesses who have invoked it, Fauci has testified for days in countless prior hearings. He also has appeared in countless interviews on these issues. He had reason to fear this hearing after his diary revealed startling contradictions between his private observations and his public statements.
The question many will ask is why Fauci could not just “stick with the science” and resolve these contradictions. The fact is that he would have had difficulty dealing with his own “inconvenient truths.”
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Fauci’s opening statement expressed obvious anger over the release of his “unredacted diary.”
The new evidence shows that Fauci connected the Wuhan lab to the emerging crisis before most people had ever heard of the lab. It also shows him repeatedly referencing the lab’s gain-of-function work and discounting the “wet market” as the true origin of the virus, viewing it instead as an “amplifier.”
Some of the most embarrassing areas for Fauci concerned his entries acknowledging that he pushed to close schools, despite public denials that he ever recommended such closures. His entries take credit for convincing figures such as then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the staff of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others to close schools.
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In an Oct. 16, 2022, ABC interview, Fauci repeated that denial: “They always come back and say, ‘Fauci was responsible for shutting schools down.’ I had nothing to do [with it]!”
Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a White House press briefing, conducted by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The media has also taken the Fifth on these subjects, declining to publish many of these contradictions. Media outlets have the same reason as Fauci: There is no spin that would reconcile their own prior coverage and gushing reviews of Fauci. The diary entries also show disturbing references to private meetings with media figures.
Fauci’s diary refers to CNN anchor Jake Tapper 41 times. In some entries, Fauci suggested that the host was concerned about crafting an interview to better serve Fauci: “Jake wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.” Fauci also related how he met socially with Tapper in July 2020: “Had dinner at Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.” Notably, on Oct. 14, 2020, CNN published a report warning about the dangers of “small household gatherings.”
The diary revealed an obsession with his publicity and access to celebrities. It is replete with Fauci’s gushing accounts of himself, such as, “It is not hyoperbole [sic] to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson [sic] in the world.”
The fact is that diaries tend to be self-obsessed, and no one would want their unvarnished private thoughts made public. Rather, my gripe with these passages is one I have previously raised in criticism of Fauci. During this period, dissenting scientists were barred from social media, removed from positions, and vilified for expressing views, despite now being vindicated on subjects ranging from the lab origin of the virus to the efficacy of masks, the 6-foot rule, natural immunity and school closures.
As these courageous scientists were being abused by academic and media figures who still hold their positions, Fauci said not a word in their defense despite privately acknowledging that they could be right.
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Yet Fauci remained silent as his allies in the media savaged those who voiced the view that the virus was man-made and escaped from the lab.
In 2021, New York Times science and health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli was still calling on reporters not to mention the “racist” lab theory. Federal agencies found the lab theory to be the most credible, despite Fauci’s public claim that a natural origin was the most likely explanation.
Fauci stayed silent while relishing his celebrity status. Indeed, his diary shows no concern for these scientists as he breathlessly recounted his bobbleheads and cover shoots.
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Once again, Fauci has every right to invoke his constitutional rights, but the public has every right to demand answers to these questions related to the deaths of approximately 1.2 million to 1.25 million Americans. That may result in a grant of immunity to compel him to answer them.
If it is any solace to Fauci, he will clearly be able to maintain that he is “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”
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