(Editor's note: The author of this op-ed wishes to advise that her father, who is referenced in it, does not endorse the following opinions expressed therein.)
This op-ed is personal to me.
As the daughter of a renowned infectious-disease specialist who once helmed the international tropical medicine and microbiology divisions at Yale, CDC, and NIH, I'm intimately familiar with the mindset and ethos of high-level epidemiologists and can confirm that every decision and action is unequivocally evidence-based and data supported.
From the outset, Dr. Anthony Fauci failed to adhere to these fundamental and resolute industry principles.
Instead, Fauci effectively tarnished the once-proud institution of global public health, as well as the countless reputations of principled epidemiologists within its coveted ranks by eroding the public trust with seemingly unapologetic sanctimony.
Fauci’s negligent disregard for confirmed scientific data, his arbitrary adjustment of herd immunity milestones, and his revisionist recollection of his fatally-flawed pandemic guidance is the antithesis of science.
Worse, Fauci’s repeated public misrepresentation of the origin and virulence of SARS-CoV-2, along with his stunning admission that he provided demonstrably false testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee regarding gain-of-function funding at the Wuhan Institute of Virology makes Fauci, at worst, complicit in the most lethal and consequential cover-up in global history. At best, it renders him woefully incapable of professional impartiality and critical public health objectivity.
But you be the judge:
Jan. 21, 2020: During a television interview with Newsmax host, Greg Kelly, Fauci outright assures the American people that the virus decimating China "is not a major threat for the people of the United States [nor] something citizens right now should be worried about."
Jan. 28, 2020: President Trump forms White House Coronavirus Task Force and immediately proposes a historic international travel ban from predominantly infected SARS-CoV-2 countries.
Fauci vehemently opposes this decision, prompting Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, to later reveal, "The guy I fought the most that day was Fauci. All he kept saying was that travel restrictions don’t work." Fauci later credited Trump’s Jan. 30 action with saving millions of lives.
Jan. 31, 2020: Trump declares SARS-CoV-2 a "National Public Health Emergency," faster than any other U.S. president for SARS or H1N1 pandemics. On this same day, Fauci sends an email to Sir Jeremy Farrar and Kristian Andersen, Scripps Research Lab, that warns coronavirus genomes may have been "genetically engineered."
Anderson confirms that "unusual features of [Covid-19] are inconsistent with evolutionary theory." Fauci says nothing to Trump administration officials, nor warns the general public, but is concerned enough email his boss, Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director, requesting to speak via telephone.
March 2020: While New York deaths skyrocket, Fauci appears on CBS's "60 Minutes" to declare wearing surgical masks is ineffective. Fauci later admits to InStyle Magazine that he "deliberately downplayed" the efficacy of masks to preserve PPE and dismisses the notion that he manipulated public trust at the height of a deadly pandemic.
April 2020: Wuhan research funder, Dr. Peter Daszak, thanks Fauci via email for "bravely downplaying" that Covid-19 was engineered in a lab despite no scientific evidence supporting a natural origin. Fauci thanks him for his "kind note."
May 15, 2020: President Trump announces historic public-private partnership to accelerate the development and distribution of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutics — a life-saving executive order that countless administration officials confirm Fauci adamantly opposed and dismissed as "unattainable."
December 2020: Fauci admits to The New York Times that he arbitrarily altered the data on herd immunity to encourage more vaccinations, stating: "When polls said only 50% of Americans would take a vaccine, I announced herd immunity would require 70-75% [vaccinated population]. Then, when polls said 60%, I nudged it to 80-85%."
January 2021: On Biden’s first day in office, Fauci declares goal of one million vaccinations per day. Later, Biden and Fauci are both forced to publicly amend this goal after the media confirms that approximately 1.6 million Americans were already being vaccinated per day under the Trump administration.
May 2021: Fauci testifies to the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee that U.S. taxpayer funds were not used by the Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct "Gain of Function" research. ["Gain of Function" is genetically engineered research with the deliberate intent to make a virus deadlier and more contagious.]
May 2021: After several biosafety experts publicly contest Fauci’s Gain of Function testimony as "demonstrably false," Fauci later admits to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that he "cannot confirm with 100% certainty" that taxpayer funded NIH grants were not used to specifically fund "Gain of Function" research as it pertains to SARS-CoV-2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
May 2021: 18 preeminent scientists publish a letter in the Journal of Science demanding an official investigation into the "theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover" asserting that both are equally viable, which single-handedly forces the genetically engineered narrative back into the mainstream media.
June 2021: Fauci rolls back his longtime claim that the COVID-19 virus emerged from nature via zoonotic bat-to-human spillover in a Chinese wet market and encourages an independent investigation into the same.
Oct. 5, 2021 - Dr. Francis Collins announces resignation as NIH Director mere weeks after Rutgers University professor Richard Ebright publicly exposes Collins as being "untruthful" about NIH funded gain-of-function research of chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses.
November 2021: Fauci’s employer, the National Institutes of Health, confirms via letter that tax-payer funded NIH grants bolstered Gain of Function "binding capability" research and modified the virus to reproduce more rapidly and make infected humanized mice sicker.
Year 2022: Fauci appears on national television to repeatedly encourage schools and businesses to remain shuttered across the country, despite low-infection rates and thriving economies in multiple red states.
June 2022: A NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll reveals only 30% of Americans trust Anthony Fauci.
Aug. 22, 2022: The nation’s top infectious-disease specialist and highest paid government employee (salary: $434,000 annually) announces his December retirement. Fauci is entitled to a lifetime pension of 80% his annual salary, totaling $350,000 per year.
In keeping with his paradoxical hypocrisy, Fauci recently told CNN that the Trump administration’s "lack of candor" cost American lives.
Yet today, under his auspices, more Americans have died from COVID-19 in less time since Biden took office than did under President Trump, despite having three FDA-approved vaccines and working therapeutics available to the Biden administration on day one.
Not only was America richer, stronger, and safer under President Donald J. Trump — it was healthier too.
Lynne Patton is senior adviser to the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. She has worked for the former president and his family since 2009. She was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Patton was a presidential appointee and regional administrator under HUD Secretary Ben Carson, during Trump's presidency, and is nationally recognized for her achievements in affordable housing. She appears regularly on Fox News, Newsmax, CNN, and OANN. Read Lynne Patton's Reports — Here.
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