Asked about school closings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he ‘had nothing to do with it’.
This is a prime example of why many have had enough of Fauci. As is often the case, Fauci has made a variety of statements about school closings, most of them squishy. Mostly, his position was that schools could reopen on a case-by-case basis when the area surrounding them had the virus well enough under control.
Sure, Fauci wasn’t making the call to close individual schools directly, but he was the face of the COVID response within the US, and his guidance was being translated down to the states and local communities. The end result: schools were closed, and much longer than necessary, in the opinion of many.
To claim he had ‘nothing to do with it’ is disingenuous at best. Say it was the right call or say it was a mistake, but don’t pretend you had nothing to do with one of the most consequential outcomes of the policy you helped shape as the face of the pandemic.
Fauci says school closures led to 'deleterious collateral consequences,' but he had 'nothing to do' with it https://t.co/t3AgtLfcEl
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 16, 2022
Twitter users took issue with Fauci’s claim.
— D-money (@FaceplantSteven) October 16, 2022
LOL.
He had everything to do with anything that had to do with Covid.
— Laurie Hambelton (@2steppin1) October 16, 2022
We all remember this, right? You couldn’t turn on a toaster without a high probability of Anthony Fauci popping out. The man was everywhere. Again, just own that you were a consequential voice in the COVID response in the US – the good and the bad.
High level bureaucrats never accept personal accountability
— The Wayward Rabbler (@WaywardRabbler) October 16, 2022
Plausible deniability. “I just told everyone to trust me. Then I suggested guidelines. I never closed the schools. That was the governors.”
— G.B. (@gbboyd77) October 17, 2022
That’s pretty much the playbook. Guess what politicians are going to do when the guidance amounts to ‘keep your schools open if it’s safe’. In fact, when Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, began discussing school reopening, Fauci responded that children ‘will likely get infected’ if the virus is not under control. It’s quite a stretch for Fauci to insist he had nothing to do with school closings.
While not exactly advocating for closing schools, "Dr." Fauci DID say reopening would look different in different parts of the country & to "think twice" before reopening: https://t.co/S3eVkbklWn
— Lisa Raymond (@LisaRaymondAZ) October 17, 2022
Yeah, people aren’t buying it, Dr. Fauci.
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