This morning, The Intercept published an article showing grant documents that experts say demonstrate that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s agency knowingly funded gain-of-function research in China. The funds allowed researchers to conduct studies during the Obama administration’s ban on that type of research. Some are saying this research may well have been the origin of COVID-19. Our sister site RedState first reported on this in May.
Fauci has appeared before Congress several times and emphatically denied his agency funded this type of research—even in the face of a 2015 study that referred to the work as gain-of-function research. You would think he might be huddled up with communications experts and members of the Biden administration to decide how to resign quietly. That way, Fauci could avoid an inspector general’s investigation and more appearances before Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Instead, Fauci appeared on CNN. Far from asking any hard-hitting questions about the report, host Jim Sciutto never discussed the shocking revelations about the research grants, nor did he ask Fauci how the news squared with his repeated congressional testimony.
Instead, Sciutto asked Fauci to evaluate Florida Governor Ron Desantis’s response to COVID-19 and pontificate about college football games. The interview kicked off with Fauci expressing his concern over children too young to be vaccinated returning to school without masks. Children who are too young to be vaccinated rarely become seriously ill from COVID-19—even the American Academy of Pediatrics has admitted that the Delta variant is not more dangerous to children than previous ones, posing almost no risk to healthy children.
Sciutto accused DeSantis of ignoring science by allowing parents to decide whether or not their children should wear masks. Most European countries are not requiring children to wear masks. There are trade-offs for children wearing masks, and sane nations put the well-being of children ahead of that of adults. Unfortunately, our country has been in the grip of mass hysteria, and we’ve forgotten that principle.
The CNN host played a clip of DeSantis expressing confidence in the vaccine by saying that another person’s vaccination status does not affect him. Dr. Fauci claimed he couldn’t hear the clip and responded to something DeSantis never said. If CNN and Fauci wonder why people are vaccine-hesitant, they might want to stop criticizing leaders who say their vaccination allows them to be confident they are well protected.
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Sciutto also asked Fauci about the need for booster shots. New narrative alert! The first two doses aren’t failing, according to Fauci. Instead, three is the correct dosage now. Weird, because Israel is already talking about a fourth dose and saying that people will likely require boosters in perpetuity. The truth is that nobody knows because it’s too soon to know.
Fauci once again set expectations about when the boosters will be available, getting ahead of the FDA. Two senior vaccine experts at the FDA resigned over his habit of doing this and the pressure coming from the White House.
When Sciutto asked him if the virus would go endemic, Fauci finally admitted that SARS-CoV-2 would not be eradicated. It would be great if Fauci aligned the policies he promotes with that undeniable fact. As Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina explained in a recent interview, repeated exposures to COVID-19 builds layers of immunity that protect people from severe illness. Of course, we need to protect the vulnerable, but the first step to doing that is admitting who is at significant risk. Fauci never parses out the data to help Americans make accurate assessments.
As the interview continued, pictures of college football fans at outdoor stadiums flashed on the screen. Most fans were maskless. Fauci and Sciutto expressed their concern for the fans. Fauci said that if people continue to behave like this, America may remain in outbreak mode. These two can’t see how wringing their hands about vaccinated people returning to normal life decreases confidence in the vaccines they want you to take.
Here’s a dirty little secret: There will be outbreaks of COVID-19 for the rest of our lives. According to The Intercept report, it is quite possible that we have Dr. Anthony Fauci to thank for that. And CNN did not ask him a single question about it.
WATCH CNN give Fauci a complete pass:
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