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“How can we restore public trust in institutions?”
This is one of the biggest questions of our time. Something all would-be sages stroke their chins about.
And it is a problem. In recent years, we, the public, have lost faith in institution after institution. Often with very good reason. We’ve seen a multi-tiered justice system. We’ve seen the politicization of every government agency. And we’ve had profound doubts cast — by Democrats and Republicans alike — on the security of the voting system.
But I doubt any institution has lost as much faith so fast as scientific “experts.”
Not long ago, when “the scientists” said something, most of us listened.
Then the years of COVID came.
At the start of the pandemic, most of us still listened. But today? Research shows that public faith in scientists has fallen off the cliff since the pandemic. People who say they have “a great deal of confidence” in scientists have halved in a few years.
And no one is more responsible for that than Dr. Anthony Fauci.
This week he appeared before a closed House select subcommittee on the coronavirus. And what he said would turn a saint into a skeptic.
His performance was by turns superior, shameless and suspicious.
Almost every single one of the things the people of this country were told unraveled before the House subcommittee.
Starting with that first question about the origin of the virus: Where did it come from?
At the beginning of the virus, it was perfectly reasonable to note that it had come from the city of Wuhan, China.
A city that just happened to have a laboratory that worked on precisely this type of respiratory virus. --->READ MORE HERE
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite |
A House committee examining the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci behind closed doors Monday, but lawmakers said the former chief medical adviser to the president couldn’t remember many details about his advocacy of lockdowns, his flip-flopping of mask mandates and his decision to allow government funding of gain-of-function research in China that might have led to the pandemic.
It was Dr. Fauci’s first appearance in the House since he retired from public office a year ago and the first of two days he will spend with the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican and head of the panel, said after the first day of testimony that Dr. Fauci drew a blank on many of the details lawmakers sought.
“What I’m most surprised about is how much he doesn’t recall, considering the severity of this event for the world, and that he was the face of the government’s response to COVID,” Mr. Wenstrup said.
Mr. Wenstrup said Dr. Fauci offered “a new definition” of gain-of-function research regarding potential pathogens that “varies from what a lot of other scientists use when they report on gain-of-function research.”
Lawmakers prepared 200 pages of questions for Dr. Fauci, who quickly became a high-profile spokesman on the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March 2020 during the Trump administration.
As chief medical adviser and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he led the pandemic response under Presidents Trump and Biden.
Dr. Fauci did not speak to reporters in the Capitol. He is expected to return for a second day of questioning Tuesday.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, Michigan Democrat, said Dr. Fauci provided detailed information on the role of the National Institutes of Health in combating viruses and pandemics. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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