Fauci

With science back in the news, it's important to say that one particular figure is also back in the news: Dr. Fauci. And I cannot possibly fathom how anyone who claims to "follow the science" is upset about this. 

Most baffling to me, I see healthcare professionals posting photos of nursing teams in full PPE, crowded around a gurney with patient on it, proclaiming, "If this wasn't your reality during Covid, then shut up. You don't have a right to have an opinion." 

Quite honestly, I would think that folks on the front lines - those who were watching patients die without knowing if we were doing the right things for them, those who were becoming family to those whose families were not allowed to visit, those who were spending their entire workdays in hazmat-level suits, those who were stripping their clothes off in their garages or renting apartments away from home, those who were following one guidance and then another and then another - I would think those are the folks who would most want to know if Fauci truly believed in what he was saying back then or not. 

Because if he didn't, then the post-traumatic stress that you now live with is his fault. And it might not have had to happen. 

Remember - some of the best advice that came out during Covid came from nursing units who bucked the official advice and just started trying things because they saw that what they were doing wasn't working. Some of the best "science" came from...get this...the scientific method: trial and error and feedback and trying again until something worked. Like proning patients. That wasn't Fauci. That was some nursing unit who said, "Hey, guys, what if we..." and tried it. And documented their results for the rest of us. 

Also remember that "science" in Covid changed according to public opinion. In the early days when the public was asking, for example, whether we should wear masks, the scientific community said, "No. That won't do any good." Because the science on masks was well-established. Masks had been researched and designed in healthcare settings and the scientists knew exactly what masks could and couldn't do. But then the public started screaming and crying out because "they're doing it in Asia. Why are you lying to us?" So scientists said, "Okay. Wear a mask." And then it was, "Your mask doesn't protect you, but it protects others from you." And then it became, "Anyone who doesn't wear a mask is a super-spreader and doesn't care about anyone but themselves." And then, about five years after the crisis, the science was revisited and they announced, again, that the masks probably didn't actually do anything, which science already knew but it gave into public outcry anyway. 

The point is - if Fauci knew more than he claimed to know or knew less than he claimed to know, if his guidance was, for either reason, leading us more astray from the problem and creating barriers to finding real breakthroughs, then science demands that we know that. 

Science is about inquiry. It's about doing a post-mortem. It's about looking at how things went and figuring out what went well and what went wrong and what we could do better if it should happen again and what we should never do again no matter what. 

Even if we determine that Fauci truly did the best that he knew how to do at the time that he was doing it, that's still science. We can still learn from it. 

Maybe it's the political overtone of the whole inquiry that puts you off. I get it. In a world in which so many have been trained to be so polarized by politics, it looks like a witch hunt. But the problem is that one group of persons is ready to close the door on Covid and say it was what it was and let's move on, but the other group is looking for answers. The unwillingness of some to be questioned only makes the questioners push harder. Why are those who claim to be for "science" so afraid of questions? Science is questions. 

Even under the guise of politics, it's still science. We're still asking...what did we do? How did it work? Was it really the best we could come up with? What was the impact? 

And yes, we're asking - if there was anything nefarious going on here, who is to blame? Did we put our trust in the wrong individual? How can we prevent this kind of unchecked power the next time this happens? 

Again, if you are someone who lives with the trauma of that time, I'd think you would want answers more than everyone else. Because if he was lying about even one small thing, that could have had the most dramatic impact on your experience. And you can't ever know that if he won't answer the questions. 

And if he wasn't lying about any single thing, then that should give you some relief. You truly were doing the best that we knew how to do and being guided faithfully by those who were trying the best they knew how to try. Believe it or not, that makes trauma a little easier to live with (in the long run), too.