Dr. Anthony Fauci may be the top disease expert in the United States—and the Biden administration appears to allow Fauci, as chief medical adviser, to continue to speak publicly about all things COVID—but many Americans are questioning the mixed messaging about masking, quarantining, and vaccinating as the nation, in mid-February 2021, continues to grapple with the complications of life in a pandemic.
Ben Shapiro, editor emeritus of The Daily Wire and host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” shared this note on Twitter yesterday: “I gave Fauci the benefit of the doubt for a full year here, but he is simply not an apolitical voice at this point.”
He added, “I’m not saying he’s badly motivated. I’m saying that as the top voice for COVID fighting in the U.S., his mixed messaging is harmful.”
On ABC’s “The View” on Monday, co-host Meghan McCain—a daughter of the late John McCain—said that President Biden should fire Fauci at this point for his “terribly inconsistent messaging.”
“I think we need to have more people giving more opinions and honestly, quite frankly, I think the Biden administration should remove him and put someone else in place that maybe does understand science,” said McCain, “or can talk to other countries about how we can be more like these places who are doing this successfully.”
She added that she doesn’t know how or when she herself will be able to get the vaccine, as “the rollout for my age range and my health is so nebulous.” Meghan McCain is 36, married, and the mother of a young child.
Fauci said over the weekend, in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” that it’s possible Americans might need to continue to wear masks in 2022 to protect against the coronavirus, even as the nation reaches a certain degree of “normality” by the end of this year.
He also said recently that wearing two masks makes more sense than wearing one. (Very early on in the pandemic, he said, of course, that Americans didn’t need to wear masks. He later admitted he said that because he was trying to make sure essential workers had enough masks. “I don’t regret anything I said then,” he said in a subsequent interview with CBS News. “We were told in our task force meetings that we [had] a serious problem with the lack of PPEs [personal protective equipment].”)
Now, on Monday, Fauci said that even Americans who have received their second dose of vaccine should still be cautious and resist the urge to eat out at restaurants or go to the movies.
Many Americans have asked—and are asking—a perfectly reasonable question: What’s going on here?
Speaking at the White House Monday during a press briefing about vaccines, Fauci noted that anyone who’s been vaccinated has increased his or her level of personal safety. But the country, he added, is “still at an unacceptably high baseline level” of new infection.
Related: Leading COVID Vaccines Were Not Produced Using Abortion Cells
Then Fauci added, “I still do not do dining indoors and I still do takeout” (he’s been vaccinated). “I want to continue to support the restaurants in my neighborhood that I would normally go to,” as Fox News and Business Insider reported.
He also said, “There are things, even if you’re vaccinated, that you’re not going to be able to do in society. For example, indoor dining, theaters, places where people congregate. That’s because of the safety of society.”
Yesterday the nation hit a very sobering milestone of 500,000 deaths from the virus. Biden, after a short speech at the White House, held a candle-lighting ceremony. Flags on federal property are now being lowered to half-staff for five days.
Every single life lost is an absolute tragedy—and we mourn those lost to this terrible virus.
Fortunately, there is also encouraging news to discuss. New cases of the coronavirus are down 70 percent over the past five weeks, as Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News contributor, points out in a new piece.
“There is also a growing natural immunity from those who have recovered from COVID, far more than the 28 million reported cases,” he says.
Related: Staying Mentally Well at a Time of Isolation: Three Tips
Francis Collins, the director of the National Institute of Health—and Tony Fauci’s boss—said in an interview on Sunday that the Trump administration should get credit for the “breathtaking” accomplishment of the coronavirus vaccine.
“The Operation Warp Speed, for which I give a great deal of credit to [former HHS Secretary Alex Azar], was a[n] effort that many of us were not initially convinced was going to be necessary. And it was thought about as a Manhattan Project,” Collins said, as Axios and Breitbart reported.
Biden himself falsely said last week that there was no vaccine when he came into the White House. Yet he received the vaccine before he began his term.
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Maureen Mackey is a writer, editor, web content strategist, and regular contributor to Christian News Journal.
