Emails Show Fauci Questioning Social Distancing Guidelines Behind Closed Doors
As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread around the globe, (and as Chinese authorities continued to downplay the severity of the outbreak in Wuhan), experts in the United States were attempting to formulate a plan to keep the nation safe.
The early guidance was rather simple: Stay 6 feet away from everyone else for two weeks to “flatten the curve”, and then we’d all get back to normal.
Spoiler alert: That didn’t happen, and many of us are still wearing masks and getting tested well over two years later.
Worse still, we are now discovering that the experts in charge of keeping us safe weren’t privately sure that their public recommendations were worth a damn.
The Biden administration didn’t have data on students’ learning loss when the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its COVID-19 school reopening guidance, internal emails show.
The emails also indicate that Dr. Anthony Fauci flagged an article citing scientific studies disputing the need for students to stay 6 feet apart, noting that the rule appeared to be based on “decades-old research.” Additionally, the CDC denied a Harvard University public health expert’s request for state-level vaccine distribution data, which she needed for her research about how policies affected vaccinations, the emails show.
Fauci was rather clear about it, too.
Fauci emailed a Feb. 20, 2021, STAT article to [CDC Director Rochelle] Walensky and wrote: “Rochelle: You probably have already seen this. But just in case, you should be aware of it.”
He highlighted several portions of the article, including one sentence that said the “two core pillars of the [CDC] guidelines — that schools should decide whether to open based on community transmission and that students should strive to be spaced 6 feet apart — aren’t supported by science.”
Another section Fauci highlighted said guidance for students to stay 6 feet apart appeared “to be based on decades-old research.” Yet another flagged sentence said the CDC guidelines “will work to provide political cover for interest groups and districts that want to delay in-person school.”
This is but the latest example of the COVID-inspired confusion that our nation endured at the onset of the pandemic, and it has many wondering just what could have been done differently.
