America’s top infectious disease expert admitted that Covid vaccine mandates he championed may have fueled a dip in confidence in routine shots.
In a rare admission of culpability, Dr Anthony Fauci said the policies were ‘counterproductive’ and turned vaccine skeptics off rather than gain their favor.
Fauci has retired from a long tenure in the federal government, where the White House‘s top doctor was the highest-paid federal employee and made around $400,000 per year.
Despite his admission that vaccine mandates backfired, the US still requires proof that travelers coming into the country have been vaccinated against Covid.
Talking about the mandates during a sweeping interview Monday, Dr Fauci told the New York Times: ‘Man, I think, almost paradoxically, you had people who were on the fence about getting vaccinated thinking, why are they forcing me to do this?
‘And that sometimes-beautiful independent streak in our country becomes counterproductive.’
What did Fauci get wrong? From telling people not to wear masks to claiming vaccines stopped infections
Dr Anthony Fauci is due to step down from his position as one of America’s top infectious disease advisors at the end of this year.
Below are listed some of his key blunders when the virus struck
Don’t wear masks, do wear masks
As global concern for Covid was surfacing in March 2020, Fauci told Americans that there was ‘no need’ to wear a face mask.
He said they may only help people ‘feel a little better’, and ‘might even block a droplet’ — but would not provide good protection.
Less than a month later, he was forced into an embarrassing climbdown after it emerged the virus spread via droplets in the air.
Dr Fauci later insisted he advised people not to wear masks to ensure there were enough available for hospitals and healthcare centers.
Covid did not come from a lab
Dr Fauci has also repeatedly insisted that Covid did not leak from a lab in China.
He called the theory a ‘shiny object that will go away’, and brushed aside claims from other top experts as an ‘opinion’.
Dr Fauci has now backpedaled, saying instead that he keeps an ‘open mind’ although insisting that it remains ‘most likely’ that the virus spilled over from animals to humans.
Two jabs will stop you catching Covid
When the Covid vaccine roll-out was in full swing, Dr Fauci said the immunity from shots made doubly-vaccinated people a ‘dead end’ for the virus, and even suggested they may no longer need to wear masks.
Schools shutdown
Schools were closed from March through to August 2020, something Dr Fauci later expressed regret about.
But he said last month that he ‘should have realized’ there would be ‘deleterious collateral consequences’.
Children are now bearing the brunt of the US’s tripledemic, after lockdowns left them without proper immune defense.
Funding Wuhan lab
In 2014, Dr Facui’s agency issued a $3.7million grant to EcoHealth Alliance, which some allege was used to support gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
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