On facts, figures, and Fauci

I want to talk about a famous American who took the 5th Amendment when forced into a hearing.

That was Donald J. Trump, who took the 5th 440 times when grilled about his business practices in New York. 

At the time, he himself said, "I once asked, 'If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?'" Trump said in a statement. "Now I know the answer to that question.”

His answer was that he was being persecuted.

I mention that to enlighten MAGA heads who are screaming all over the net that Dr. Anthony Fauci must be guilty of something because he took the 5th like a mob boss Wednesday morning.

Fauci’s reasoning would be identical to Trump’s, for whom he worked before being turned in a “mass murderer,” according to MAGA acolytes, who can’t keep the number straight.

On my Facebook page, one charged him with 15 million American deaths due to Covid. The actual number is more like 1.2 million, which is well under the horrifying worst-case estimates drawn up when the terror began. But on unsocial media, facts usually finish last.

And deaths would have been much higher had President Trump, after first poo-poohing the viral attack (remember he said it would be gone by Easter?), not launched Operation Warp Speed, which threw the pharmacological kitchen sink at the disease.

It worked. Millions of lives saved. 

——

So much for the history.

On Wednesday, Fauci was summoned to the Senate to testify about WTF happened, and ostensibly to clear up previous statements he had made under oath to the Senate committee headed by Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

I honestly believe Fauci is a dedicated public health servant with a long record of achievement. I also believe that Paul, an eye surgeon with a scientific background, is sincere in his pursuit of the truth. Paul thinks Fauci is a liar, Fauci thinks Rand is a stooge.

And here I peel away to an interview before the hearing conducted by NewsNation's Markie Martin with Dr. Deborah Birx, who worked closely with Fauci on the Covid task force. She struck me as open and honest and delivered some bad news.

“We will never know what happened because we don’t have samples from that Wuhan lab,” she said.

It was not the first pandemic we could not get in front of “because the country involved [China] did not provide accurate information in real time” and the World Health Organization was complicit.

If you are looking for a villain, whomp, there it is. China, with a long record of stonewalling. There have been no penalties.

Has Fauci been honest at all times?

No.

He apparently did fund, to some extent, gain of function research. There are inconsistencies between what he told the public and what he wrote in his journal, which he foolishly wrote on government equipment. It was retained on government servers, which made them public property. What an amateur mistake.

So he was subjected to Republicans reading excerpts to make him sound like a fawning, needy megalomaniac. Even if he were a star-struck fool, that has nothing to do with his scientific decision-making, which can be fairly questioned.

But here’s the thing: This virus was novel, meaning completely unknown. The Covid response team was working in a pitch black cave, wearing gloves. 

In some cases, like the 6-foot separation rule, they just threw things against the wall to see if they would stick. Mandatory quarantines were a mistake, Birx said. Infected people should have been quarantined, not everyone. 

New information poured in, contradicting previous “facts.” I see no deliberate, let alone criminal, wrongfully activities.

Birx learned to her surprise that Fauci was having private conversations with blue state governors and mayors, getting them to shut down, while red states remained more open, and suffered fewer casualties.

“Did we do everything right?” Birx asked.

“No.

“Now we know more and we can fix that.

“Did the Biden Administration do everything right? No.

“A vaccine that doesn’t produce herd immunity has never been mandated. There are things that we need to have an honest, bipartisan discussion with, and fix it.”

But with an election three months away, is anyone really interested in a facts-only truth commission?