Anyone who has listened with an open mind to Anthony Fauci over the past year has noticed two things: first, the man is a master at prevaricating, and second, he has a massive ego. Part of that is due to the fact that the mainstream media fawns over him incessantly, and has done so for decades. But part of it is due to the man himself, who has bought into the lionization and adulation from the press. This time, however, his pride has grown too great.
In response to recent criticism, Fauci stated that: “Attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science.” That’s the kind of chutzpah that only someone in Washington could display.
Fauci shows the usual confusion coming from the medical and scientific establishment that just because someone calls himself a scientist then everything he does must therefore be scientific or the result of scientific inquiry, the scientific method, etc. Fauci believes that the scientific process means that “As you get more information, it’s essential that you change your opinion, because you’ve got to be guided by the science and the current data.” He couldn’t be any more wrong.
Just because new studies or new data are available doesn’t mean that you change your opinion, particularly when the issue is one that’s politically charged. There’s a reason Sweden and the Netherlands didn’t implement mask mandates, because there wasn’t good data to indicate that masking did anything to stop the spread of coronavirus.
So if one study claims that masking is effective, but other countries aren’t mandating masks because there isn’t a scientific basis for it, either the study is wrong or the other countries and the studies they’re citing are wrong. The solution isn’t to pick the most recent study and assume it’s true, it’s to go through the entirety of the evidence, determine what’s true and what isn’t and, if necessary, go back to the drawing board and do more studies until you come to a strong conclusion. And if you can’t come to a strong conclusion, then there really isn’t a scientific case to be made for one side or another.
Fauci’s beliefs make a mockery out of the scientific method and merely ensure that poorly done science will continue to get published and influence public policy. But if there’s one good thing that has come from his recent comments, it’s the increasing realization among many Americans that he is completely full of himself. Hopefully someday soon we’ll be free from his overlordship and won’t have to listen to his bloviating any more.