Why Dr. Fauci's Latest COVID-19 Vaccine Claim Is Raising Eyebrows
While the Biden Administration can legitimately claim to have moved mountains to get as many people as possible vaccinated, voices have been calling on President Joe Biden to be magnanimous and lay credit where credit is due for Operation Warp Speed; that is, on the doorstep of his successor Donald Trump, who showed willingness to spend billions to get vaccines from research and development to fruition in just eight months (via USA Today). In an official statement written from the office of the former president, Trump even called on the American people to remember that "when they're getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn't president, you wouldn't be getting that beautiful 'shot' for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn't be getting it at all." (via Fox News).
But the commonly-held belief is now under scrutiny, thanks to comments made by pandemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci during a CNN special marking the first anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic. He said: "When I saw what happened in New York City, almost overrunning of our health care system, it was like, 'Oh my goodness.' "
"And that's when it became very clear that the decision we made on January the 10th – to go all out and develop a vaccine – may have been the best decision that I've ever made with regard to an intervention as director of the institute," Fauci adds.
Dr. Fauci's claim was met with strong opinions on both sides
Dr. Fauci's comment was met with derision from one Trump associate, Jason Miller, who said: "If it were up to Fauci we still wouldn't have a Covid vaccine." One social media user agreed with Miller, saying: "Wow! he's (Fauci's) really got a Messiah complex going on."
But there were those that questioned Miller's assertion; a member of the Twitterverse pointed out that: "We're supposed to believe TRUMP initiated OWS, despite going on in public over and over downplaying and denying the pandemic?"
Dr. Deborah Birx, who worked closely with the Trump White House throughout the early days of the pandemic, told CNN that she had a "very uncomfortable conversation" with Trump after she spoke out about the epidemic. During an interview on August 2, 2020, Dr. Birx had made the assertion that the American public needed to wear masks and practice social distancing. She had warned then that, "To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus." Adding, "This epidemic right now is different and it's more widespread and it's both rural and urban." This came just weeks after Pence wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the U.S. is "winning the fight" and there "isn't a 'second wave.'" At the same time, FDA Administrator Dr. Scott Gottlieb predicted the country could see 300,000 deaths arising from COVID-19 by the end of 2020. By January 1, 2021, the AJMC said the U.S. infection rate had gone past 20 million, and it had reported 346,000 deaths. According to the CDC, the current death toll exceeds 540,000.