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Anthony Fauci Says Don't Blame Him For COVID Lockdowns And School Closures

If you're looking for someone to blame for the infamous "15 days to slow the spread" that turned into more than a year of shuttered schools, closed businesses, and fraying social connections, Anthony Fauci says don't look at him.

"Show me a school that I shut down and show me a factory that I shut down," says Fauci, the former White House coronavirus czar and now-retired public health official who became the face of both the Trump and Biden administrations' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a lengthy sit-down with The New York Times. "Never. I never did."

The interview is framed by the Times as an inside look at Fauci as he "wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic—and the decisions that will define his legacy." But when it comes time to answer the tough questions about who was at fault for America's botched response to COVID-19, the good doctor is happy to pass the buck. The blame is spread around, not only to the CDC and the other public health apparatuses for which Fauci became a convenient (and willing) personification but also to the politicians who followed public health recommendations without any consideration of the costs involved.

Here's the most interesting and illuminating part of the exchange:

"I gave a public-health recommendation that echoed the C.D.C.'s recommendation, and people made a decision based on that," says Fauci. "I'm not an economist. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not an economic organization. The surgeon general is not an economist. So we looked at it from a purely public-health standpoint. It was for other people to make broader assessments—people whose positions include but aren't exclusively about public health. Those people have to make the decisions about the balance between the potential negative consequences of something versus the benefits of something."

In a certain way, Fauci is correct about all this. He never called for the closure of specific schools, nor did he stand at the podium in the White House briefing room and announce which businesses could stay open and which must close. Those acute decisions were made by other people—by governors, mostly, but also by local elected officials and school boards. And they were made, in the case of schools specifically, with teachers unions weighing heavily on the scales.

Moreover, Fauci couldn't have made those decisions. The emergency powers invoked to require masks in public, to close schools, to require proof of vaccination, and so on did not grant the White House's top coronavirus expert any special authority. Again, it was governors and local officials (along with their dutifully appointed and confirmed public health officials) who made those determinations. It wasn't Fauci who kept playgrounds in California closed even after bars and restaurants had reopened, it was the California Department of Public Health. It wasn't Fauci arresting socially distanced beach-goers, either. It was local police enforcing local ordinances.

Fauci is also correct when he diagnoses why these failures happened. "We looked at it from a purely public-health standpoint," he says in the Times interview. "It was for other people to make broader assessments." That's exactly what many elected and appointed officials at all levels of government failed to do during the pandemic. Protecting public health is one important component of an overall pandemic response plan, but other things matter too: the economy, the learning loss from closed schools, the social effects of lockdowns. Too many public officials ignored those other things for too long, and we're still dealing with the consequences.

But while Fauci is narrowly correct about each of these things, he's also woefully understating the role that he played in creating the mess. From the start, Fauci pushed for the Trump administration to tell states to lock down. "No bars, no restaurants, no nothing. Only essential services. When you get a place like New York or Washington or California, you have got to ratchet it up," he told Science magazine in an interview in mid-March 2020.

Fauci also pushed back against evidence that lockdowns were causing unintended (though totally predictable) problems. A group of epidemiologists and other public health experts in October 2020 signed The Great Barrington Declaration, which called for a focus on protecting the vulnerable and letting everyone else resume normal life. Soon after it was published, Fauci denounced the document as "nonsense and very dangerous."

And though it may not have affected the public policy response to the pandemic, Fauci also deserves blame for his disassembling about the usefulness of masks and the origins of the pandemic. In the early days of COVID, he advised against the wearing of masks in public places, only to later admit that he'd been less than truthful. Later still, he advocated for double-masking, despite a lack of any evidence for the effectiveness of that strategy.

He also obfuscated about the possible "lab leak" origins for COVID and criticized anyone who believed such a thing. "They're really criticizing science because I represent science. That's dangerous," he said in November 2021 after several senators pushed for an investigation of the Wuhan lab near where the first known COVID outbreak occurred. Fast-forward more than a year, and the lab-leak theory has gone from supposed "misinformation" to being endorsed by the FBI and the federal Department of Energy.

For Fauci to now sit back and claim that public officials should have spent more time listening to economists and other advisers that weren't him is both true—they absolutely should have!—and incredibly frustrating. It's like having a friend in the back seat of your car who insists that turning left is the quickest way to get to the restaurant, but a half-hour later when you're lost and running late, he insists that it was really your fault for making the turn because you're driving the car. He's right, but you're still going to be mad at him.

They say that success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Unfortunately, America's COVID-19 failures have many parents—they're just all absent. It's easy (and in some ways right) to blame Fauci singularly, but that actually hides a good portion of the policy lessons that ought to be learned from the past few years. Limiting the emergency powers that governors and other elected officials can access, as 30 states have done in a variety of ways, is one good idea. Throwing out (or at least refusing to promote) the bums who made those poor decisions is another. It would be nice if Fauci was singularly responsible—then his exit from public life would mean there was no chance this could happen again. Unfortunately, things are not so simple.

And, of course, we shouldn't forget the fact that despite everything—the pointless school closures, the livelihood-destroying mandates shuttering bars and restaurants, and the rest—America still suffered nearly 1.1 million "excess deaths" over the past three years, a total that exceeds the 1 million-deaths figure Fauci offered as a "worst-case scenario" in March 2020.

Confronted with that seemingly contradictory set of facts right at the top of his interview with the Times, Fauci replies that "something clearly went wrong."

He's right about that, at least.

The Life And Near-death Of Fordham's Sarah Taffet, Whose Heart Stopped On The Softball Field

Less than a year after watching in horror as their teammate's heart briefly stopped, the Fordham softball team won the Atlantic 10 title last May. Fordham Athletics

On Oct. 28, Sarah was accompanied by her coach to receive another opinion at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She considered her latest appointment to be of such little consequence that she failed to inform her parents of it.

A coronary CT scan helped finally crack the case, revealing Sarah was born with a rare congenital heart defect — anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) — in which the heart doesn't receive enough blood and oxygen. The condition is typically diagnosed during infancy. The mortality rate of ALCAPA hovers around 90 percent, if left untreated.

"The doctors told me I could've dropped dead at any time in my 21 years of living," Sarah said. "The doctor compared it to a car with three wheels. It shouldn't get the job done."

"Who gets open-heart surgery and goes right back into their sport? That's not what's supposed to happen."

Fordham trainer Bridget Ward on Sarah Taffet

Without a ground ball to first base and a tag to her chest, Sarah's condition still might be a secret.

"She could've gone her entire life without ever knowing she had this or her heart could've stopped when she was walking down the street where no one knows CPR or has an AED," Ward said. "We were lucky it happened in a situation where it did, because if she was alone in her apartment or out with friends, we have a different outcome."

The doctors wouldn't let Sarah leave the hospital. She was scheduled immediately for open-heart surgery.

"I'm like, 'Sorry, can you repeat that?'" Sarah said. "I wasn't processing the information."

On Nov. 1, Sarah entered the operating room. Five hours later, her heart began working properly for the first time in her life. She remained in the hospital for a week, struggling to breathe or move because her sternum needed to be broken to perform the surgery. She spent the rest of her "terrible recovery" at home, taking online classes, while plotting her return to softball.

Slowly, she built up her strength and stamina, walking laps at a track near her New Jersey home, increasing the distance traveled each day. More rigorous exercise followed.

Three months after exiting the OR, Sarah returned to Fordham for practice. She would see live action less than two weeks later, ultimately missing just three games of the 2022 season.

"It was nerve-wracking, and we definitely monitored her quite a bit in the beginning," Ward said. "It was really emotional watching her just be back out in her element. I figured she was probably done with softball. Who gets open-heart surgery and goes right back into their sport? That's not what's supposed to happen.

"We joke about it all the time, we've had ankle sprains that take longer to come back from."

Sarah reclaimed her starting spot at second base. Last May, she graduated with a degree in business administration, as the Rams won the Atlantic 10 title — Sarah ripped a game-tying triple in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament — and advanced to the NCAA Regionals.

Taffet was back on the field for Fordham only three months after undergoing open-heart surgery.Courtesy Fordham Athletics

"I wasn't nervous it was gonna happen again," Sarah said. "I never saw it like that. I was grateful."

Before returning for her final season — NCAA athletes impacted by COVID-19 were granted an extra year of eligibility — Sarah spoke with Ward about using her story to increase AED awareness. Ward became a certified instructor, and helped Sarah's teammates become Fordham's first team with every player certified in performing CPR and using AEDs. In February, Sarah and Ward attended an American Heart Association event at City Hall, meeting with several members of the local government.

Soon, Sarah will complete her master's degree in media management. She hopes to land a job in sports. Preferably, baseball or softball.

For another few weeks, she can still enjoy the game from the infield.

"It definitely changed my perspective on the game and life in general," Sarah said. "You can't take it so seriously. It's a game. Life is so precious. Just enjoy every minute."

Man Ran Marathon Less Than 24 Hours After Having Surgery For Sepsis

A man ran a marathon less than 24 hours after having surgery for sepsis.

Michael Jones, 27, from Hoylake, went to the Liverpool city centre walk-in centre on Friday, April 14, with what he thought were flu-like symptoms. On Saturday, April 15, he had surgery at the Royal Liverpool Hospital for an abscess in his groin area.

Despite the doctors advising him to rest and telling him that most people aren't able to stand the day after such surgery, Michael ran the Manchester Marathon on Sunday, April 16. The race started at 9am and he finished in a time of 3:59, putting him in the top 31% of runners.

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Michael, who lives in the city centre, said he took part in the race because he doesn't believe in quitting. He had been looking forward to the run for months and was not going to drop out.

He told the ECHO: "I had flu-like symptoms so I went into the walk-in centre. I had really achy muscles, and I got really bad headaches and sweats.

"I was really ill. Before, in work, the lads were ill and said 'don't sit next to me'.

"But I never get ill, so I didn't worry about it. And then, obviously a couple of days later, I was in hospital.

"I thought I'd pulled a muscle in my groin from the gym. But it wasn't.

"In the walk-in centre, they said that I had early sepsis, so they needed to rush me to the Royal to get emergency surgery. I got the surgery within 20 hours of going to the doctors."

The abscess, located near the Perineum, had become infected. Michael had to go under general anaesthetic while the surgery, which involved cutting a 3.5cm by 3.5cm by 3.5cm hole in his groin, was completed.

This didn't scupper Michael's marathon ambitions, however.

He said: "It (the infection) wasn't in a good place. I think the only worse place it could possibly be is on the bottom of your foot when running a marathon.

"They told me to rest, but I told them that I had a marathon coming up. They said 'no, you won't be able to do that.' I said that I really wanted to do it, but my family said I needed to rest.

"Doctors said it was a horrendous idea. But I asked if it would do any medical damage to it and they said no.

"I was told I just wouldn't be able to run it as I would be too sore and I'd be too weak. The doctor said that most people can't get off the couch the next day, they said it would be impossible to run the marathon."

Not to be deterred, Michael travelled to Manchester on the Sunday and did indeed run the marathon.

He said: "It was horrendous while I ran. At the start of the day, I thought it was alright when I was on painkillers.

"But the next day, I couldn't even walk. It was killing me.

He added: "I did alright. I was in the top 31%, so not too bad.

"I was aiming for a time of 3:30, but considering the circumstances, it's not bad.

"It felt amazing when I finished. It was unbelievable.

"My family were there to cheer me on - they said I was an inspiration and a few of them have started running. A few of my friends are going to enter some races with me, starting with 10km."

He believes his story shows people can do anything if they put their mind to it. He is, however, returning to the walk-in centre every day to have the dressing changed.

Michael said: "It's (the affected area) still, quite literally, a pain in the a**e. But, other than that I feel fine. I feel great that I completed it, if I hadn't I'd be down in the dumps.

He added: "If someone says you can't do something, don't always listen. You can do more than you think - the human body is capable of amazing things."

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