Dr. Anthony Fauci admits there was no evidence to support masking and social distancing

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“Trust the science,” they told us!

During the pandemic, the media propagated various pieces of information that the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper tried to warn the community about. While mainstream channels emphasized trusting the science, it is important to recognize that we can’t always take governmental officials and media reports at face value. What I am about to report will hopefully help people realize the importance of critical thinking and independent verification when it comes to information from these sources.

It was recently reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, admitted there was no evidence to support social distancing to limit the spread of COVID-19, and failed to recall evidence for child masking. This is according to newly released transcripts of congressional testimony he gave earlier this year.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in congressional testimony that he reviewed no scientific evidence behind the specific recommendations for masking children or maintaining 6-foot social distance before advocating these policies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The revelations come from the full transcript released of Dr. Fauci’s closed-door interview session in January before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

“You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared. I don’t recall, like, a discussion of whether it should be five, or six, or whatever,” Dr.Fauci testified.

“Did you see any studies that supported 6 feet?” a subcommittee staffer followed up.

“I was not aware of studies that — in fact, that would be a very difficult study to do,” Fauci conceded.

Upon further questioning, Fauci said six feet was “An empiric decision that wasn’t based on data, or even data that could be accomplished.”

The six-foot directive was given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and supported by Fauci, the face of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and other public-health officials such as the–National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins.

Francis testified earlier last year and similarly admitted that there was no evidence to support six feet apart. During the second day of his testimony, Dr. Fauci made a similar concession about the lack of scientific evidence to support masking children to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” a staffer asked Dr. Fauci.

“You know, I might have, Mitch, but I don’t recall specifically that I did. I might have,” Dr. Fauci replied.

“Since then — there’s been a lot of studies that have come out since the pandemic started, but specifically on this there have been significant on kind of like the learning loss and speech and development issues that have been associated with particularly young children wearing masks while they’re growing up. They can’t see their teacher talk and can’t learn how to form words. Have you followed any of those studies?”

Dr. Fauci responded, “No. But I believe that there are a lot of conflicting studies too, that there are those that say, yes, there is an impact, and there are those that say there’s not. I still think that’s up in the air.”

Dr. Fauci also admitted that vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic could increase vaccine hesitancy in the future. He also claimed that these mandates were not sufficiently studied ahead of the pandemic.

The Majority Counsel asked, “Do you think mandating vaccines can result in some hesitancy?”

Dr. Fauci replied, “I think one of the things that we really need to do after the fact, now, to — you know, after-the-game, after-the-event  evaluation of things that need to be done, we really need to take a look at the psyche of  the country, have maybe some social-type studies to figure out, does the mandating of vaccines in the way the country’s mental framework is right now, does that actually cause more people to not want to get vaccinated, or not? I don’t know, but I think that’s something we need to know.”

As a community, as a country, and as a people, we are only at the very beginning of these revelations. It is unfortunate that there will be times when individuals will need to admit they were wrong for chastising those who chose to question the mandates and make decisions that suited their lives and the lives of those they love. The journey towards understanding and reconciliation is ongoing, and it requires humility and openness from all of us.