No federal official was more prominent in the government’s response to the COVID pandemic than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Under my leadership,” he boasted yesterday, “we were well positioned to respond to COVID-19.” No, under his watch and recommendations, heavy-handed policies were implemented across both the Trump and Biden administrations that wrecked the economy, set back the education of millions of children, and divided us even deeper politically.

Arguably, the three biggest issues connected to Fauci were the infamous six-foot social distancing rule, the push for draconian masking policies on everyone including young children, and vaccine harassment and mandates.

Furthermore, Fauci set the initial narrative regarding the origin of the novel coronavirus, as he sought to suppress any notion of COVID having originated as the result of a leak from a lab in Wuhan, China — the very lab to which the National Institutes of Health, under Fauci’s guidance, had funneled taxpayer funding. Yesterday, Fauci lied about that: “The NIH did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” The truth is that the Wuhan lab was using gain-of-function to research bat-based coronaviruses, and it received money funneled from the NIH so as to cover the paper trail.

In January, the now retired Fauci sat down for closed-door testimony, in which he admitted there was little to no science behind the six-foot social distancing rules or the child masking mandates in schools. According to the transcript, Fauci said of the infamous six-foot distancing rule, “You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared.” Such sound “science” from the man who proclaimed in June 2021 that “attacks on me quite frankly are attacks on science.”

Now, the 83-year-old Fauci is on Capitol Hill again, facing lawmakers who are none too pleased with the fact that his opinions, not scientific reality, led to his recommendations for pandemic policies.

In his opening statement, Fauci immediately deflected criticism by asserting that he had always maintained an open mind to the differing possibilities for COVID’s origin. “It was decided,” Fauci said in the passive voice, “that several participants would more carefully examine the genomic sequence after this further examination. Several who at first were concerned about lab manipulation became convinced that the virus was not deliberately manipulated. They concluded that the most likely scenario was the spillover from an animal reservoir, although they still kept an open mind.”

He then sought to deflect the accusation that he put his finger on the scales by suppressing the lab leak theory. “The accusation being circulated that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous,” he stated. “I had no input into the content of the published paper.” He added, “The second issue is a false accusation that I tried to cover up the possibility that the virus originated from a lab. In fact, the truth is exactly the opposite.”

Really? The record shows otherwise, as Fauci did media interview after media interview in which he asserted that the evidence “strongly” or “very, very strongly” pointed to COVID having arisen from a natural origin rather than a lab leak. His pronouncements led to rampant jack-booted “fact-checking” suppression on social media, which sowed deep distrust of government and media alike. If that was Fauci being “open-minded,” what does his being close-minded look like?

Since the NIH was involved in giving taxpayer money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for engaging in gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, the possibility or probability that its origin was due to a lab leak would have garnered plenty of unwanted criticism and inquiry. Fauci personally was a promoter of using gain-of-function research. He is invested in dissuading the public from the notion that the lab, through its experimentation, is responsible for potentially unleashing the world’s deadliest pandemic in a century.

Finally, as for vaccination, in 2021, Fauci was a lead promoter, saying things like this: “It will either protect you completely against infection — if you do get infected, the chances are you’re going to be without symptoms. And the chances are very likely that you’ll not be able to transmit it to other people.”

Now, he’s singing a different tune. “I don’t believe any vaccine is 100% effective,” he told Congress yesterday. “We did not know early on that became evident as the months went by is that the durability of protection against infection, and hence transmission, was relatively limited.”

Remember that the Biden administration and others, acting on Fauci’s advice, mandated that healthy people get a novel vaccine.

Fauci vs. Fauci on COVID transmission: pic.twitter.com/zQLfhZBLia

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) June 3, 2024

Now that the worm has turned on Fauci’s faux-scientific draconian response recommendations, he’s trying to revise the record and minimize his outsized role in negatively affecting so many millions of Americans’ lives and livelihoods. Yet even if he’s truly held accountable rather than enjoying his lavish retirement, it doesn’t put back together the economic, educational, cultural, and political things he broke.