Fauci and Covid

 

Anthony Fauci was back in the new lately, both for refusing to answer questions under oath about what he did during the Covid epidemic (despite having a presidential pardon in his pocket) and for things in a diary he kept during the epidemic. Many Trumpists and some ordinary Republicans saw this as evidence that everything or almost everything officials did about the epidemic was wrong, and everything or almost everything they said during the epidemic was a lie. Many leftists and some ordinary Democrats took the positions that there really was nothing to see, that Fauci and other officials did a fine job and dealt honestly with the public, that officials had no political biases and nothing to hide or cover up, and, for many, that Fauci was still a saint, but now also a persecuted one. It was an embarrassing and silly show from both factions.

Fauci behaved dishonestly. He suppressed evidence that the disease originated in the virology lab in Wuhan, likely at least partially because he and colleagues had had a hand in funding and supporting activities at the lab which led to development of the virus. During the epidemic he frequently ignored obvious uncertainties and dismissed reasonable doubts, including some of his own, to deliver apodictic sounding statements to the public. He was arrogant and vain , to the point of declaring that he “was” science. If there is another crisis in public health, it will be harder to get the public to believe it or to trust officials to know what to do about it, partly because of things he said and did.

Many things went wrong during the Covid epidemic. Closing schools was wrong. Shutting down much of the economic and social life of the nation was wrong. Requesting or requiring the same behavior from healthy young people who had little risk as from the old people who really were in danger was wrong. The draconian enforcement of masking was wrong and also demeaning annoying, and idiotic. Suppressing evidence and attempting to squelch discussion about the origin of the disease was wrong. Over selling the effectiveness of the vaccines was wrong and counterproductive. Public health officials and American politicians, including two presidents, did not perform optimally, and often not even adequately.

None of this justifies some of the stuff we are hearing from the right. There is an absurd claim from some conservatives that Covid was no big deal, but rather something no more significant or dangerous than the yearly flu. Some call it the Wu-flu or something similar. That is nonsense. In each of the years 2020 and 2021 several hundred thousand more Americans died than in years before 2020 or after 2021. There were increases in deaths from some other causes in those two years, but, after factoring for them, there remain over 300,000 deaths in 2020 and over 400,000 in 2021 from Covid. The data on this are easy to get with a simple internet search for deaths in each year by cause.

Then there is the claim that the vaccines were ineffective and useless or worse. The evidence is strong that the mRNA vaccines worked well when they first came out and, especially when augmented by annual booster shots, worked fairly well at preventing infection and making infections less severe later on. Development and approval of the vaccines were rushed. Some people had unpleasant reactions to the shots. There should have more caution about effects on pregnant women. But overall the vaccines and the fast way they were created were remarkable successes. Unjustified mandates for vaccination were the fault of the politicians and bureaucrats, not of the vaccines. Instead of recognizing all this, some fools and scoundrels on the right are using the less than perfect record of the Covid vaccines as reasons for skepticism about and opposition to vaccination in general. That is inexcusable.

A person can believe that Fauci was in some ways a bad person who did some harmful things without joining with people out there who are trying to do much worse.

Anti-Vaccine Propaganda

People often miss the important difference between having a right to do something and that something being a right or reasonable thing to do. People have a right not to get vaccinated for covid. It’s a free country. Adults refusing vaccination do not create serious risks except for each other. (Those of us who are vaccinated are either immune to the disease or well enough protected that if one of us gets infected, he probably either will never know it or will have only the equivalent of a mild head cold. Kids under twelve are at  very little risk of getting really sick and should become eligible for vaccination in a few months. Also as another aside, I mean to exclude from consideration here people who have already had the disease because I do not know whether or not their acquired immunity is robust and long lasting enough to make vaccination unnecessary.) But what they have decided is wrong. I feel sorry for many of them who have been conned, manipulated, or just plain frightened into making a bad decision. 

I have no sympathy for the politicians and people in mainly the conservative media who are doing the conning, manipulating, and frightening. They have a right to do what they are doing, but what they are doing is wrong – cruelly, foolishly, yahooishly wrong.  Not everything in life should be political. Conservatives are supposed to know that. The decision to or not to be vaccinated should be a reasoned, pragmatic, medical one, not a political statement.  The fact that some authoritarian Democrat governors and other officials have gone too far too gleefully in bossing people around during the epidemic is irrelevant to the question. So are the absurd things coming from the teachers’ unions and the misrepresentations, lies, and panic mongering  coming from people in the traditional media. So are the political biases of Tony Fauci and the character and policies of Biden and Harris. Yet some conservative politicians and media people behave as though they were, and that getting vaccinated is somehow caving in to the Dems and their flacks in the media while going unvaccinated is standing up against them. They also make light of the epidemic itself - treating the new, more contagious version of the disease and even the present increases in serious infections as something of a joke. Some of them spread scare stories about harmful side effects of the vaccines while neglecting to mention how rarely they happen and even repeat silly monster movie stuff such as stories claiming the vaccines alter people’s DNA.

They should know better, and they surely should think about the harm they are doing. For old and already very sick people, getting vaccinated can be a matter of life or death. For the young and healthy vaccination can be both a way to feel and be safer and to help get their lives back to normal. For kids  vaccinating enough teens and adults (and soon the kids themselves) can be a way allow them to ditch the masks  and return to a normal childhood. It is hard to excuse preaching against it to make trivial political points.

People Not Getting Vaccinated

 My wife and I took the Moderna vaccine for covid as soon as we could and were delighted to do so.  We saw and still see getting vaccinated as an obviously sensible and prudent thing to do. Since getting the shots in January I have encouraged others I know, particularly others over fifty,  to do the same. Some have, and some have decided they won’t. The ones deciding not to get vaccinated are not fools or paranoiacs. They are not against vaccines in general. They do not think the shots contain a secret microchip which will allow Bill Gates to track their movements. They just plan to pass on this one.    According to the news there are millions of Americans who have made the same decision. Rather than insulting them, it is worth thinking about what might have contributed to their decision.

The first thing that comes to mind is simple fear. These days people are easy to scare.  They have been indoctrinated to be so. Through about the first  two thirds of the 20^th Century there was a general impression among the public and in journalism that advances in science and technology were good things which made people’s lives better. Many people still think so, but in the last fifty or so years fear mongering politicians and people in media have created a counter trend of unreasonable fear of everything from being poisoned by eating apples to causing the end of the world by having a hamburger, and especially  of anything to do with “chemicals”. The vaccines are made of chemical compounds, and they were created by corporations. The same people who have spent decades portraying anything chemical as dangerous and pharmaceutical companies as evil now seem surprised that people are wary of new chemicals developed by pharmaceutical companies. The environment is right for claims that the vaccines alter people’s  DNA or give them cancer or corrupt the purity and essence of their precious bodily fluids to be taken seriously.

There is also mistrust of government. Lying, bumbling, and covering up are standard features and practices of the government, and people can see that irrespective of their political preferences. (I doubt if very many people would consider both Barack Obama and Donald Trump to be competent, effective, straight shooters who did their jobs well and honestly.) People do not trust the government and its public relations people in the media because they are not trustworthy.  They have earned their “credibility problem”.

What should people in government do to make more people willing to be vaccinated? What they are doing now is not working well, and I doubt if sending evangelists door to door will do much good either. I would suggest that they change their marketing approach and try something very unusual for them. They should treat skeptics as reasoning adults, admit that their statements, demands, and actions on the epidemic in the past have sometimes been wrong, heavy handed,  and unnecessary, agree that all vaccines carry risks and that these were developed very rapidly while offering evidence they have worked out well, concede that young adults have little to worry about from the virus, resist the temptation to bring up race, gender, or Trump in the pitch, and ask, not order, people to get vaccinated to make things safer for everyone and get this thing over with. They also might consider finding a better salesman than a shifty, pompous old man so arrogant that he equates questioning his opinions to an attack on science itself.