Dr. Anthony Fauci has denied he’s retiring any time soon, but boy, if he left his position today, it wouldn’t be soon enough. During an interview on the BBC’s Sunday Morning with Sophie Raworth, Fauci claimed that he doesn’t believe “we’re ever going to be able to determine” if the COVID-19 lockdowns were worth the negative trade-offs.
“I’m interested in your reluctance to use the word ‘lockdown,'” Raworth said. “Do you think two years on that they were worth it or were they too severe?”
“You know, I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to determine what the right balance is,” Fauci replied. “I think the ‘restrictions,’ if you want to use that word, which I tend to shy away from ‘lockdown,’ they certainly prevented a lot of infections, prevent a lot of hospitalizations, and prevented a lot of deaths. There’s no doubt about that,” he claimed. Yet, he provided no evidence to back up that claim.
“Obviously, when you do have that kind of restriction on society, there are unintended negative consequences,” he continued, “particularly in children who are not allowed to go to school in the psychological and mental health aspects it has on children, in the economic stress that it puts on society in general, on individual families. Obviously those are negative consequences that are unintended.”
“One has to look at the balance of life saved, hospitalizations avoided,” Fauci added.
FAUCI: “I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to determine” if covid lockdowns were worth it.
pic.twitter.com/LrmFRkDJLu— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 29, 2022
It’s been more than two years since the start of the pandemic; there’s tons of data comparing states with and without mask mandates and countries that did and didn’t impose lockdowns. The amount of information we have on this pandemic is mindblowing and has been the subject of countless studies, and for Fauci to claim unequivocally that the lockdowns prevented infections, hospitalizations and deaths is flat-out wrong.
Since fairly early in the pandemic, we’ve known that the lockdowns did very little to slow the spread of COVID. A study from July 2020, which was published in The Lancet and based on data from 50 countries, found no reduction in COVID-related mortality. Another study published a few months later relied on data from 160 countries and reached a similar conclusion. There have been many studies since that have also reached similar conclusions, including a Johns Hopkins University study released last month.
Despite all the data and studies suggesting the lockdowns weren’t effective, Fauci has been vehemently pro-lockdown. In fact, in the fall of 2020, Fauci orchestrated a “quick and devastating” takedown of The Great Barrington Declaration, a document authored by experts who advocated for herd immunity to stop the pandemic and “focused protection” for the most vulnerable populations over universal lockdowns.
The health officials in charge of our nation’s pandemic response never wanted to engage with those who held different ideas for getting us through the pandemic. Last year, Fauci had the arrogance to claim that anyone criticizing him was dangerous because he represents science.
Fauci will never admit the lockdowns were ineffective, and he’ll never admit that he was wrong. But, as a government official, he’ll always be on the side of whatever involves controlling the population.
