New emails released by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed that last year, outgoing National Institutes of Health Dir. Dr. Francis Collins instructed Dr. Anthony Fauci to carry out 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.
According to the declaration, “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health” that will lead to “greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice. ”
“Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed,” states the declaration.
“As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls,” the declaration continues. “We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity … Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity.”
This, it seems, was unacceptable to Collins and Fauci.
In an email to Fauci dated Oct. 8, 2020, Collins vilified the Great Barrington Declaration as the work of “three fringe epidemiologists” that “seems to be getting a lot of attention.”
“There needs to be a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises,” Collins told Fauci. “I don’t see anything like that online yet – is it underway?”
Over several emails, Fauci and Collins exchange links critical of the herd immunity approach and the Great Barrington Declaration.
The declaration was written by Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, Sunetra Gupta of the University of Oxford and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University, and, according to its website, more than 15,000 medical & public health scientists and over 45,000 medical practitioners have signed onto it.
“So now I know what it feels like to be the subject of a propaganda attack by my own government,” Bhattacharya tweeted after the release of the emails. “Discussion and engagement would have been a better path.”
So now I know what it feels like to be the subject of a propaganda attack by my own government. Discussion and engagement would have been a better path. pic.twitter.com/p5tqigdRgg
— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) December 17, 2021
But the experts in our government don’t want to discuss or engage with those who have different ideas. In fact, last month, Fauci declared that anyone who criticized him was dangerous because he represents science.
“So it’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science,” he told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan. “That’s dangerous.”
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But Fauci’s record as the self-proclaimed representative of science inspires little confidence. During this pandemic alone, he’s been plagued by a number of flip-flops.
Objective science is open to debate. Once, in human history, it was heresy to suggest that the earth orbited the sun, rather than the other way around. Sadly, that closed-minded approach to the pursuit of knowledge has once again reared its ugly head.
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