Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Newsmax on Friday that the erosion of public trust in the nation's health agencies was "one of the real prices we paid for the COVID pandemic."

Five years after the initial lockdowns of 2020, the public sentiment toward the CDC and the National Institutes of Health has cratered. Much of the public antipathy can be traced to the actions of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who supported school closures and widespread masking, and insisted the vaccine would prevent transmission, according to Redfield, who said he is "very worried about that because you can't have public health without public trust."

"And right now, I don't think we have high levels of public trust. I am very concerned about the bird flu pandemic that's currently in in agriculture — turkeys and chickens and a variety of mammals," he said during an appearance on "Finnerty."

"But I am worried that virus has potential to cause another pandemic in humans. And hopefully we'll get it right the next time. But I think we're starting at a huge disadvantage because there's a total loss of public trust."

Redfield recalled how he was a lonely voice during the early days of the pandemic, saying he "never felt that we should have closed schools."

"We should have never shut down businesses. We closed a lot of businesses. All those things were incorrect policy decisions," he said.

"The vaccine mandates — incorrect policy decisions. So very sad. Lack of truthfulness, very heavy-handed government overreach. I can only hope that when we have our next pandemic, that we have much more thoughtful policy."

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