In an interview with “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci was at it again. It should surprise no one that Mr. Doom and Gloom is trying to kill Christmas already. Welcome to the never-ending pandemic.
According to the CDC, 75.7% of Americans over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination. The agency’s conservative estimate is that 100 million Americans have had COVID-19 and recovered. However, Brennan opened by invoking the “700,000-dead, worst pandemic ever” narrative. Even if you grant that all currently recorded deaths are due to COVID-19, it equates to approximately 0.21% of the U.S. population in 18 months. COVID-19 also disproportionately impacts the elderly.
As of June 1, 2021, 31% of all deaths occurred in nursing homes, despite only 4% of COVID-19 cases occurring there. Children and young adults have had minuscule rates of severe disease and death. Yet Fauci spent the entire interview acting as if every case of COVID-19 carries an equal risk of serious illness and death no matter your age or other risk factors. The failure to honestly discuss who is at risk from COVID-19 is one of the driving factors for the mass hysteria we are living through.
By contrast, in 1918, the Spanish Flu killed 675,000 Americans, or about 0.65% of the population. In fact, when you look at the population between 1917 and 1918, it is the only year in a century when the country’s total population declined. The Spanish Flu hit all age groups and reduced the life expectancy in the country by 12 years. Brennan needs to brush up on statistics or history.
She then asked Fauci if America should prepare for another wave of COVID-19. Fauci noted that cases were dropping and went straight back to his line about not getting complacent. It would have been better if he explained that COVID-19 is a seasonal virus that will impact different regions at different times of the year. In recent weeks, the most significant case jumps have been in the Northeast and Midwest, as many predicted they would be. COVID does not care if your governor is a Democrat or a Republican. It spreads best when people spend more time indoors.
Then Fauci quoted population-level vaccination rates. Children under 12 are not eligible, and as a recent study from the UK demonstrated, they are not significant drivers of spread. It also showed that children are most likely to catch COVID-19 from an adult in their household. Not the other way around. Yet Brennan specifically asked if families should decide not to gather over the holidays if there are unvaccinated children. Another adult is acting as if children are a mortal threat to adults. It is disgusting.
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Fauci responded, “Well, Margaret, I believe just the way the CDC has recommended. That when you are in a situation where you have a dynamics of virus in the community, where there’s clearly a lot of spread, even if you are vaccinated, and you are in an indoor setting, a congregate setting, it just makes sense to wear a mask. And to avoid high-risk situations.” Unless, of course, you are attending the Emmys, Barack Obama’s birthday party, or the Met Gala–or if you are San Francisco Mayor London Breed. Then you can drink, nosh, and dance maskless to your heart’s content.
Brennan then asked if Americans could gather for Christmas or if it was too soon to tell. Fauci responded, “You know, Margaret, it’s just too soon to tell. We’ve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we’re going to do at a particular time. Let’s continue to focus like a laser to get those cases down.”
Going back to measuring the pandemic by cases is absurd. Fauci and other health agency bureaucrats tell us vaccination significantly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death. That should mean hospitalization for COVID-19 and deaths from COVID-19 are the measure of the pandemic severity. Fauci then went on to say that vaccination diminishes infection. Yet we know from the CDC that vaccines do not prevent infection and transmission. They halt disease severity.
Brennan asked Fauci if Biden’s vaccine mandate was just a stunt since the message’s urgency has not been matched by the speed of enforcement from OSHA. Fauci noted that universities and some businesses were moving ahead with mandates anyway. Then his inner authoritarian came out: “When you do that, when you tell people that their alternative is that if you don’t get vaccinated, you’re not going to be able to work or you’re not going to be able to go to school–I think that the emergent nature of what we’re dealing with actually does justify that.”
Then he proceeded to endorse vaccine mandates for children in school when they aren’t even approved for emergency use in that age group. That could be because COVID-19 is not an emergency for children. We should be rejoicing at this outcome. Instead, it has been turned on its head as if children are the root of the current waves. No data support that and plenty of data contradict it.
COVID-19 emerged in January of 2020. Nothing is emerging now except a political problem for Joe Biden. He told voters he was not going to shut down America. He was going to shut down the virus. However, it appears that unless you shut down, mask, and restrict the movement of Americans, the virus is going to do what viruses do. And that is the problem. The virus that causes COVID-19 is not going away, and the optics on that are not good.
When vaccines became available, the COVID-19 death toll was approaching 300,000. An additional 400,000 have died since then, mainly under Joe Biden’s watch. Daily deaths have exceeded the rate for the same date in 2020 since August 19. Perhaps that is why Biden implored more Americans to get vaccinated in a statement on Friday. Maybe the administration needs to come clean and develop a plan for living with COVID, communicate it clearly, and admit it will be a seasonal visitor along with a host of other seasonal illnesses we live with every year.
In his statement, he noted that 94% of seniors have received at least one dose of the vaccine. According to the available data on vaccines preventing severe illness and death, this statistic should mean strong protection for the most vulnerable among us. We have effective outpatient treatment with monoclonal antibodies and a range of steroids and other medications used with inpatients. Studies have documented robust and durable protection for recovered patients. Instead of restricting Americans, it is time to stock up and use all the tools at our disposal and give them back their freedoms.
This article has been updated to reflect the correct percentages on the death rates from COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu. 700,000 out of approximately 329.5 million have died from COVID-19, which is 0.21% of the U.S. population. In 1918, approximately 675,000 of 103,268,000 Americans died in the Spanish flu pandemic, equaling 0.65%.
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