Dr. Anthony Fauci announced this summer that he'd be stepping down from various government positions in December, in order to pursue the "next chapter" of his life and career. With his protracted farewell tour underway, I'd argue that his departure can't come soon enough. In an interview with CBS News over the weekend, Fauci tried to blame the Trump administration for the Chinese Communist Party's flagrant cover-up on COVID's origins. As others have noted, his timeline here is wrong -- and his view of how matters should have been investigated and settled is embarrassingly naive:
This is ridiculous and dishonest historical revisionism by Fauci.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) November 27, 2022
The CCP started covering things up long before the Trump admin was actively commenting or anyone even knew there was a concern.
Li Wenliang was admonished by CCP police on Jan 3rd 2020. https://t.co/KHqs3RImPH
The 'horse out of the barn,' to borrow his phrase, was COVID itself, and it was out of the proverbial barn for months prior to Fauci's designated antagonist -- Donald Trump -- began criticizing Beijing over its scandalous handling of the pandemic's emergence. Also, the notion that the issue of COVID's origins could have been settled among scientists, with 'politics' left out of it, is preposterous. The CCP reflexively punished medical professionals and scientists, among others, who spoke out in those early days. They run a closed, authoritarian government; the idea that they'd have permitted their scientists to operate with a free hand to pursue the truth is laughable. They interfered at every single step, determined to obscure and bury what happened. They're still doing things like roughing up and arresting western journalists. Let's also recall that Fauci himself also had a hand in diminishing the viable-to-probable 'lab leak' theory early on, receiving personal thanks for doing so from a man who (like the CCP) was heavily invested in the suppression of that important line of inquiry. And it was actively suppressed for quite some time.
I won't assert that Fauci is willfully spreading Chinese propaganda, but I can't imagine Chairman Xi and his henchmen are too disappointed to see the American media's favorite doctor pointing the finger at the "accusatory" Trump administration for supposedly causing the Chinese government's "flinch back" posture on COVID origins. Meanwhile, here is how things have been going in China, where the regime's truly insane 'zero COVID' approach (bizarrely cheered on by a neurotic quasi-journalist at the Washington Post) is facing remarkable and deserved backlash from a population not accustomed to resisting any of its government's decrees. People are understandably distraught and furious over scenes like this:
On Nov 23, when a fire broke out in #Urumqi , people’s doors were locked from outside. Fire truck couldn’t get closer either( see my previous tweet). The latest figure says 44 were burnt to death, including a 3 y/o kid. That’s one of the reasons for today’s protests. pic.twitter.com/s4E0JHk4wQ
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferzeng97) November 25, 2022
Like the incredible and ongoing protests in Iran, courage is breaking out across China:
This is an extraordinary, historic moment in China
— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) November 27, 2022
Protests are breaking out across the country-from Beijing, to elite colleges, to other major cities, and even far flung places
Shocking to hear people chanting for Xi to step down
This is people past their breaking point @cnn pic.twitter.com/6lccNGIycT
Calling for the end of pandemic lockdowns, protestors chanted “We want freedom!” and “Unlock Xinjiang, unlock all of China!”
— Daniel Twining 🇺🇦 (@DCTwining) November 28, 2022
In even more extraordinary scenes of public anger, protesters chanted, “Xi Jinping, step down!” and “Communist Party, step down!” https://t.co/9EnnLq0fvc
WOW!
— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) November 28, 2022
Watch this brave woman stand strong and continue to film the abuses of Chinese government security forces!
She then gets beaten herself!
While we support the people of Iran, we must also support the brave people of China as they take on the totalitarian CCP! pic.twitter.com/AmCXbdD11t
Some additional dystopian vignettes, as the regime has loosened its draconian policies a bit:
China censoring images of maskless fans at World Cup: https://t.co/cFewXz35UZ
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) November 28, 2022
The largest quarantine camp in China's Guangzhou city is being built.
— Songpinganq (@songpinganq) November 27, 2022
It has 90,000 isolation pods. pic.twitter.com/7VdAJpki5q
Back to the interview referenced above, in which Fauci also hedged on a question about closing down schools. To be clear, this is not an old exchange. It just happened a few days. They're discussing potential school closures after this current holiday season:
“Coming out of the holidays, should parents expect schools to shut down?”
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) November 27, 2022
FAUCI: "I don't know, Margaret. I'm not sure.” pic.twitter.com/9e9bNG5FFo
This comes in the context of what some in the media are hyping as a "tripledemic" of COVID, RSV, and the flu. But study after study have confirmed how damaging school closures have been for children. Fauci has tried to pretend that he didn't have a hand in that public policy disaster, and he'll try to wriggle out of criticism for this answer by emphasizing the need for local officials to engage in a cost-benefit analysis, based on regional conditions. He even chuckles about the toxicity of closing schools, as if it's a silly commentary on our politicized era. But shutting down schools should be toxic, based on the resulting harm. I'll leave you with Karol Markowicz, who moved her whole family from New York to Florida during the pandemic, largely due to the schools issue, offering the correct answer to the question posed:
"Margaret, we should never again consider closing schools as some virus-fighting option. It was pointless and stupid to ever close schools and I should hope the country has finally learned that lesson."
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) November 27, 2022
And yet, nonsense like this continues in various parts of the country. It's long past time for Fauci to exit stage left. I'll leave you with this weak sauce. They regularly have much harsher words for their domestic political opponents:
New statement out from the White House as protests break out in China over the governments zero COVID policies pic.twitter.com/fRA8R6Se7N
— Kristin Brown (@kristincbrown) November 28, 2022
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