To be frank, I would rather replace Dustin Hoffman in the dentist’s chair in Marathon Man than take another swing at the controversy surrounding Dr. Anthony Fauci. But the man is being railroaded by some mendacious pissant from Texas and somebody has to stand with a man who has spent the entirety of his career saving lives.
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who also served as chief medical advisor to former President Joe Biden, was tasked at age 79 with leading the nation’s struggle with the COVID -19 virus. The pandemic itself lasted from March 2020 to May 2023, costing more than 1.1 million American lives.
For his efforts, Fauci has been characterized as everything from a murderer to a baby-killer to having presided over a holocaust. He is portrayed as evil incarnate. Many on the right have called for his arrest and prosecution, including President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump, a factor that unintentionally and ironically speaks in Fauci’s complete defense. Others have chipped in to recommend his hanging.
Leading the charge is Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, the aforementioned Texas native who has imported his own special brand of sophistry to the Bluegrass. Paul doesn’t much care for Fauci, having sparred with him on numerous occasions during the pandemic, with Fauci declaring at one 2021 hearing, “Sen. Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you’re talking about.’’
In return, Paul has maintained for several years that the now 85-year-old Fauci should be imprisoned, mostly for lying to Congress about his efforts in regard to the pandemic. Paul is now using his position as chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to quench his anti-Fauci bloodlust, claiming he is only seeking accountability while everyone and his brother knows he is waging a vendetta.
Fauci appeared before the panel on July 29 for a hearing on the pandemic’s origin, a subject that remains lost in the ozone. Fauci refused to answer questions, understandably fearing a perjury trap set by Paul, and invoked his right under the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. For that, the eight Republicans on the committee, led, of course, by our boy Rand, voted to hold Fauci in contempt. The exercise is unlikely to survive a full Senate vote – those damn Democrats – but never fear, Paul is dispatching his concerns to the Department of Justice, which remains in the hip pocket of the Lord of Mar-a-Lago, so the story is far from over.
So, what exactly did Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci of Brooklyn, NY, do to reap the hatred of so many millions? He recommended, as the leader in the national campaign against COVID-19, that folks wear masks, refrain from attending large gatherings and obtain vaccinations as they became available, all with an eye toward halting the plague from spreading. He hypothesized that the virus occurred naturally, spreading from bats to animals to humans in or around Wuhan, China, while acknowledging that a different explanation – that the virus leaked or was intentionally released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – is a worthy subject of investigation.
That’s about it, the sum and substance of the claims against Fauci that warrant calling him evil and requiring him to serve a long term in the can.
So, who is this modern-day Mengele?
My friend and former Kentucky Post stablemate Michael Collins recently wrote a terrific story about Fauci for USA Today. In it he noted that Fauci served under seven presidents, Democrats and Republicans, during his 56-year career in public health, providing advice to the nation’s leaders regarding anthrax attacks, Ebola outbreaks, and SARS scares in Asia.
He was particularly esteemed for his efforts to address the AIDS tragedy, initially reaping disdain from activists before achieving a large degree of respect.
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who succeeded Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases after he retired in 2022, told Collins, “He became an icon because of his success.’’
But the goodwill Fauci accumulated over the years dissipated with the COVID-19 crisis. It’s important to note that none of the recommendations he issued were mandates – adopting them and instituting them were left up to the individual states and municipalities. Fauci possessed no authority to require anyone to do anything. The federal government faced similar restrictions – Biden’s efforts to impose mask wearing in certain situations were struck down by the courts.
Regardless, most states followed the federal government guidelines provided by Fauci.
There were plenty of bumps along the way since researchers were operating in the dark about the nature of the unique virus. Fauci was criticized, for instance, for announcing with the pandemic approaching that he didn’t think it necessary at the timer to wear masks. That inclination ended as new information became available and the Centers for Disease Control recommended using masks to reduce transmission on April 3, 2020.
They worked, at least according to the Mayo Clinic.
“The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads mainly through the air when a person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks or breathes. Virus particles can drift in the air and be inhaled, especially in crowded places with poor airflow. Face masks or respirators are products that cover the nose, mouth and chin. Most research finds that these products can slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 when they are worn consistently, fit properly and are worn correctly.’’
But many states ended their mandates within a year.
Fauci also recommended against attending large gatherings, a pitch that became a sore point for many since states and municipalities generally closed schools, businesses, sporting events and even churches. Members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on July 29 castigated Fauci, asserting that family members were in some instances unable to attend a loved one’s funeral because of the restrictions adopted on his advice.
Again, Fauci imposed nothing. And he did acknowledge that schools were shuttered for too long. But it should be noted that the lockdowns carried some positive, though debatable, impact. As the online website Scienceinsights reported:
COVID lockdowns did reduce transmission and death from the virus, but how much they helped depended enormously on when they were implemented, not how strict they were. The trade-offs were also real: significant economic contraction, measurable learning loss for children, and a 25% global increase in anxiety and depression. Whether lockdowns “worked” depends on what you’re measuring and over what timeframe.
And there were disputes over the vaccines with some maintaining the after-effects were worse than the disease. On that score, Paul doesn’t come off looking like a prince since he offered several some false claims.
During a hearing in September 2025, Paul asked Susan Monarex, the former head of the CDC, “does the COVID vaccine reduce hospitalizations for children under 18?” When she answered “it can,’’ Paul tersely responded “it doesn’t.’’
But, according to Forbes magazine, a 2023 study reviewed 17 studies of nearly 11 million vaccinated and 2.6 million unvaccinated children between the ages of 5 to 11 and found COVID-19 vaccination to be associated with lower risks of infection, hospitalizations and multisystem inflammatory disease. Specifically, children who were vaccinated were 68% less likely to be hospitalized compared to children who were not vaccinated.
Paul stuck his foot in it again just this week when he accused Fauci of knowingly endangering pregnant women and their unborn children by recommending the vaccines.
After releasing a treasure trove of Fauci text messages, Paul claimed on X:
“In private, Anthony Fauci was concerned about potential miscarriage risks in pregnant women when they received a COVID booster. In public, he said pregnant women had nothing to worry about when getting the COVID vaccines. This is a shameful thing to lie about, especially when we’re talking about the potential death of unborn babies.’’
It simply isn’t true and Paul should have known that, in which case it’s proper to say he lied.
In the early days of the vaccine issuance, Jan. 21, 2021, Fauci was engaged in a text exchange with colleagues discussing the possibility that a high fever, that often followed the second dosage of the vaccine, might increase miscarriages or birth defects in first trimester pregnancies. He posed it as a theoretical possibility that needed to be monitored. Subsequent studies showed no red flags – miscarriage rates for vaccinated and unvaccinated pregnant women were the same, in the area of 12 percent.
That’s why you listen to an immunologist instead of an eye doctor.
Regardless, the vaccines proved safe and saved lives. Again, according to the Mayo Clinic:
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine helps to keep you healthy. The vaccine protects against serious illness, the need for hospital care due to COVID-19 and death from COVID-19.Staying up to date with the latest vaccine is most important for people at higher risk. That includes adults over age 65, those with weakened immune systems, people who are pregnant, and people with chronic conditions, such as heart disease, lung disease or obesity. Serious side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine are extremely rare. Because of that, even healthy adults benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine which lowers the risk of serious illness at a similar rate to the flu vaccine.
It’s hard to see what Fauci did to warrant a trip to Leavenworth. There were mistakes – schools closed too long, the early suggestion to refrain from using doorknobs without some protection, his early advice that masks were unnecessary. But it was done in the public interest and claims that he lied are taken out of context or made when he was aiming at a moving target.
But the big question remains the origin. That dispute is unlikely to be resolved any time soon as long as China is sitting on the information.
Suffice to say, after considering available evidence, Fauci has consistently believed the spread of the virus is the result of zoonotic transfer, from bats to animals to humans. After initially dismissing the lab leak possibility, he now believes it is worthy of consideration.
On June 3, 2021, appearing on the Morning Joe program on what was then MSNBC, Fauci said:
“We didn’t know and we still don’t know what the origin is. If you look historically in the way things rolled out we all felt and still do actually that it is more likely to be a natural jumping of species from an animal reservoir to a human. However, since we don’t know that for sure, you’ve gotta keep an open mind. So you could say that you think one thing is more likely than the other but the fact that it could have been something else clearly was there.
Paul, the eye doctor, is now all in on lab leak and anyone who believes otherwise is a dope. There simply is no evidence backing up his claim. It may prove true once all the cards are dealt but the facts ain’t there at this point.
Paul maintains that a Wuhan study funded by the United States during Fauci’s watch, utilizing gain-of-function research, banned in the U.S. at the time, resulted in the pandemic and Fauci should be held responsible.
Writing on X on Aug. 11, Paul said:
COVID occurred because no one was adequately overseeing dangerous gain-of-function research. At the same time, the people leading our pandemic response were being paid royalties to push vaccines.
His message is clear – gain-of-function research, which “increase(s) the ability of infectious agents to cause disease by enhancing its pathogenicity or by increasing its transmissibility,’’ caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Where’s your proof, senator?
Let me emphasize, to be clear, despite Paul’s proclamation that the mystery has been solved, there is no evidence establishing that gain-of-function resulted in the COVID-19 virus and that it somehow escaped the Wuhan lab. It’s just not there. So, of course, our boy Rand proffers it as a proven fact. No question.
There even remains a question whether the U.S. under Fauci funded gain-of-function research during the corresponding time. Paul says yes, Fauci says no, and it’s apparently all about definitions that I don’t possess the ability to decipher.
Fauci sought to affect the impact of COVID-19 without mandate but through public statements and behind-the-scenes discussions with authorities that could make his recommendations a reality. He never possessed the authority to close schools or businesses or seek to make sure everyone got vaccinated. Most of the steps he sought worked but it also led to school closures, business disruptions and considerable chaos. None of it warrants imprisonment, death or other horrors being heaped upon him by the likes of Randal Howard Paul.
Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci saw a pandemic and tried to stop it. That’s why he is so despised.