Fauci Steps Down
One of the most controversial and polarizing doctors is stepping down. I am going to let Dr. Vinay Prasad take it from here:
On Aug 22, 2022, Anthony Fauci announced he would be retiring by December of this year. Dr. Fauci was the head of NIAID for several important decades, where many great discoveries were made. His work during the George W. Bush years to help control HIV in Africa is truly worthy of praise and admiration. At the same time, his policy choices during the pandemic will ultimately define his legacy. Fauci was the architect of lockdowns; He supported school closure in 2020 (he criticized DeSantis for reopening), His stinging rhetoric against schools would keep them closed in blue districts for 18 months; He flip flopped on masks and herd immunity; He favored one size fits all booster policies and vaccine mandates; He played a role in many other major decisions. Ultimately, these actions will define his legacy far more than anything that came beforehand, simply because these decisions will affect more lives.
Ultimately, Fauci (aged 78-81) personally influenced the most devastating policy choices of the pandemic, mentioned above (lockdown, closure, vax mandates). In each of these instances, these choices were made far beyond evidence. A neutral scientist would have been more cautious— both for dismissing masking (in early March 2020) and for promoting it (in April 2020). A neutral scientist running NIAID would have commissioned a cluster RCT to answer the question; It takes a certain personality trait to lie (either the first or second time with respect to masks), and think that the public and media will forgive you, and you can continue to be spokesperson.
Some of Fauci’s quotes have not helped, “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science.” and “What I symbolize in an era of the normalization of untruths and lies and all the things you’re seeing going on in society, from January 6 to everything else that goes on, people are craving for consistency, for integrity, for truth.” January 6 was a terrible day in this nation’s history, but Dr. Fauci is not the symbol for truth. He has lied at least twice, per his own admission. Each one was big enough to be disqualifying.
Fauci still enjoys the position of darling of the media, including bizarre one sided pieces like this from Nature, but that will change. As time wears on, and the harms of his policy choices grow, public sentiment will shift. Many who agreed with him will forget their agreement, and all of us will remember the massive harms of school closure and lockdown. I suspect future bills will be passed for term limits at NIAID and other NIH agencies. Ultimately, Dr. Fauci remains a careful and charismatic politician, a scientist cursed by narcissism; so sure he was right, he would be unwilling to hear voices that tried to warn him, even as he led us all, off the cliff.
There is more to this and you can read it here:
https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/fauci-retires
Goodbye, Dr. Fauci. Your ego got the best of you.
Dr. Fauci followed the science. Political Science.
Fauci still has a career torturing small animals.
I think it’s possible to take a nuanced approach to Fauci overall. His earlier career was admirable but his handling of COVID was just bad. He was put in a position he really wasn’t that well suited for, seemed to enjoy the celebrity too much, and invited controversy instead of minimizing it.
Read up on his initial skullduggery with virus-thief Robert Gallo, and his initial dismissal of docs in the field using TMP/SMX to treat PCP.
Read “The Real Anthony Fauci” book by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for more details on this. He made investments in pharmaceutical concerns to make money and made rulings to his advantage.
I am sorry but someone continuing in “public service” until age 80 is a demagogue no different than Stalin or Putin. And a pension of 400k plus unknown tens of millions on the side by deals that are not public. Franklin Roosevelt of all people , warned us of the power of a public service system that was unionized and answered to no one.
“His work during the George W. Bush years to help control HIV in Africa is truly worthy of praise and admiration.”
No it did not. As thoroughly documented in Robert Kennedy’s “The Real Anthony Fauci,” his “work” in Africa was a political master stroke, a desperate power play that gained White House favor and guaranteed his protection. It used falsified data on discredited, toxic drugs, tinpot dictator payoffs, Potemkin clinics hastily repainted for the Bush rep’s, destroyed records, and an utter absence of informed consent. Oh yeah, and plenty of previously healthy, dead locals. Fauci & Co used this to springboard this type of Mengelism on US patients, for which he was never held accountable.
This evil bastard should have been in prison for mass negligent homicide BEFORE COVID hit.
He should have been fired a long time ago!!!!