U of Illinois gives ‘highest standards in public service’ award to…wait for it…Anthony Fauci – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

It’s truly difficult to understand how anybody, particularly in a governmental affairs unit of a major university, plus a U.S. Senator, can be this detached from reality.

The Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois recently awarded its annual Paul H. Douglas Award to Anthony Fauci. The award supposedly recognizes “a person who made a significant contribution to the practice and understanding of ethical behavior and fair play in government” and “promoted respect for the highest standards of public service.”

Few major figures in America fit that description less than Fauci. The award was presented by Senator Dick Durbin, who praised a benevolent version of the “Fauci Effect.” I will get back to the true Fauci Effect, but first a recap of Fauci’s errors, deceit, megalomania and outright malevolence displayed during the pandemic.

Start with this list from Slate, which is normally friendly toward the government establishment: Fauci, says Slate, was wrong about masks and asymptomatic transmission early in the pandemic. He was also wrong about vaccines stopping transmission. He was dismissive about the possibility of the lab origins of the virus….”

But that’s just the start. It was Fauci who originated the infamous “15 days to slow the spread” claim regarding lockdowns in March 2020, which was endlessly repeated but catastrophically wrong. As late as September 2020, Fauci opposed school openings until the virus was “under control.” School closings are now widely regarded as among the biggest mistakes ever in modern healthcare science. But Fauci publicly ridiculed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for opening schools, claiming that premature re-opening “likely” led to widespread student infection.

He remains an unabashed supporter of the vaccine. There had never been an mRNA-approved vaccine before, but for Covid one was brought to market at “warp speed.” Suffice it to say that extreme controversy remains over the vaccine’s side effects and efficacy, doubts about which Fauci entirely dismissed.

The case that the National Institute of Health funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab, which Fauci denied under oath, is now largely settled. It did, and the lab as the source of the pandemic is now widely accepted.

Regarding masks, Fauci has essentially admitted he lied when he initially said they weren’t needed, saying he did so because they were in short supply at the time. He later endorsed masking, with minimal if any evidence. He also admitted that the six-foot distancing guidance to guard against Covid, which he helped promote, had no scientific basis.

Most vicious was Fauci’s smear campaign against experts who questioned his pronouncements. Those who supported strategies more targeted on the most vulnerable or who acknowledged the role of natural immunity were dismissed by Fauci as “fringe.” They weren’t fringe, but Fauci’s campaign largely succeeded in stifling debate.

He responded to criticism by saying, “It’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous.” [Emphasis added.]

That’s perhaps his greatest sin — a betrayal of the scientific method itself, which is supposed to rest on endless questioning and improvement. A physician and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance put it this way: “Fauci’s legacy is one of narcissism and power. The glorification of his massive ego trumped any scientific or medical data. His policies were giveaways to the pharmaceutical industry, which helped burnish his image and crush dissent.”

In his remarks presenting the Douglas Award to Fauci, Senator Durbin said, “I suspect that one of the most meaningful of those tributes may be a phenomenon some have dubbed “The Fauci Factor:” a marked increase—since the pandemic—in medical students saying that they want to spend at least part of their careers as public health researchers.

If that version of the Fauci Effect comes true, we should hope those new epidemiologists are inspired to display the integrity and judgement Fauci lacked.

The bigger Fauci Effect is already real: “Experts” of all sorts are now suspect, particularly if they are in government, and Fauci is a major reason. For that, and only that, we should thank Anthony Fauci.

Shame on Institute of Government and Public Affairs for not recognizing him for that.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.