America’s lead immunologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been in government nearly his entire adult life.
by JD Heyes
Having taken over as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, he joined the National Institutes of Health in 1968 — meaning he has been in Washington for more than 50 years. That’s longer than two careers with an average 20-year retirement.
So it’s no wonder that Fauci complained in the Washington Post this week that the reason why COVID-19 became a pandemic and spread throughout the United States isn’t because it’s a virus and that’s what viruses do. No.
It’s because Americans are too free. Too independent. We have too much liberty.
Asked whether the current spike in coronavirus cases in some parts of the country (not all) is to be blamed on our tradition of individualism or President Donald Trump’s refusal to impose national mandates (like masks and stay-at-home orders — it’s not even clear he has the constitutional authority to do so), Fauci said the “independent spirit in the United States of people not wanting to comply with public health measures has certainly hurt us a bit.”
Got that? We are ‘suffering through this virus’ because we Americans are just too darned free.
Fauci also went on to complain that too many people continue to treat the virus like a “hoax.”
“There are people in various parts of the country who still believe that is a hoax, that it’s fake — even when in their own state the hospitals have been overrun with patients in the hospital beds and in the intensive care unit,” he said.
It’s not that the virus is fake — of course it isn’t. What is upsetting and even maddening to an increasing number of Americans is the arbitrary, non-science-related lockdowns, business closures, and other mandates (like masks) that clearly aren’t mitigating the virus’ spread but are killing off entire industries and countless small businesses.
Worse, these goofy business-related policies — ‘the virus can’t hurt you in Walmart but it’ll get ya if you go to a gym or a restaurant’ — are nonsensical, devastating to business owners, and are being made by government representatives who aren’t losing a single dime’s worth of income.
Guys like Fauci, for instance. And millionaire governors and mayors like Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo in New York, and Gavin Newsom in California.
Worse, some of these bozos keep getting caught violating their own lockdowns and COVID mandates requiring the wearing of masks and mandated social distancing.
How can Americans take these people — and this disease — seriously when those who are making the rules a) aren’t losing any money themselves; and b) don’t seem to take it serious themselves?
Nevertheless, Fauci went on to say that Americans should forego celebrating Christmas this year — like he advised against gathering for Thanksgiving, though tens of millions did and there was no ‘Thanksgiving COVID spike’ in most regions.
“They are not going to come home … That’s painful. We don’t like that,” he said. “But that’s just one of the things you’re going to have to accept as we go through this unprecedented challenging time.”
He added: “You try to explain: You’re going to have many more Christmases ahead of you. You’ve enjoyed many more Christmases before. Maybe this is a time to just say, ‘This is an unusual situation, it’s not going to last forever.”
No, Dr. Fauci; we don’t ‘have to accept’ that we can’t see our loved ones during one of our country’s most beloved and observed holiday seasons. Scores of Americans won’t be around next Christmas to see their loved ones.
And besides, when did life on earth become a zero-risk endeavor?
Americans consider and try to mitigate risks every single day — when they decide to get into a vehicle; take a flight; get on the subway; walk down the street; go into a business that might become the site of a mass shooting; etc.
We figure we’re smart enough to take into consideration a virus that, despite the fact that most people are doing what they’ve been asked to do, is still spreading.
Free people get to make these decisions. Enslaved people don’t.