America may soon be facing a new pandemic. To better fight it, we should develop a better understanding of the strategies and tactics used to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, and have a healthier discussion of the efficacy of vaccines and the ethics of making vaccination mandatory or voluntary. But the disgraceful persecution of Dr. Fauci is not the way to elicit new data or new insights into existing data. If Congress is truly interested in learning more about how we coped with COVID, as well as how we can better cope with the next pandemic, it will grant Dr. Fauci immunity from prosecution for anything about which he truthfully testifies and replace Health and Human Services Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr. with someone who truly understands public health and the efficacy of vaccines.
Last week’s Senate committee hearing featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci was more like a Communist or Nazi show trial than a good-faith effort to learn more about COVID and how we should prepare for or combat future pandemics. The committee chairman, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, had publicly expressed his desire to put Dr. Fauci “behind bars.” Dr. Fauci justifiably feared that Senator Paul and other Republican Senators, including Josh Hawley of Missouri and potty-mouthed Bernie Moreno of Ohio, would search his testimony for any inconsistencies with past statements and use those inconsistencies to justify possible prosecution for perjury or at least lying to Congress. No wonder he felt the need to take the 5th Amendment. The best way to avoid saying anything incriminating is to say nothing at all.
Of course, Dr. Fauci himself did not come off looking good. Those who viewed the hearing would be justified in thinking he really did have something to hide. But he was well within his rights to assert his constitutional right to refuse to say anything which might be twisted into something self-incriminatory.
But despite the baiting of Dr. Fauci by the GOP Senators and the ridicule heaped on his diary entries—reflecting an excessive pre-occupation with his public image and standing among celebrities—the fact remains that there are legitimate questions to be raised by serious truth seekers: To what extent did what he said for public consumption differ from his private assessments? What did he truly believe were the origins of the covid virus—a mutation in a Chinese “wet market,” or the product of research in a Chinese lab? What are the arrangements, financial and otherwise, between our government and research labs in China? How, if at all, did he help shape, and possibly suppress, news coverage of those who questioned covid’s origins or who should be treated first, or whether vaccinations should be voluntary or mandatory?
These questions would be important under any circumstances. But they are especially important given the indifferent and incompetent approach taken to public health issues by current HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy, Jr. As I’ve written in previous columns, Kennedy said that Biden-era vaccine and mask mandates made Americans less safe than Europeans, even Jewish Europeans, under Hitler. He has singled out Anne Frank as an example of a Jew who could safely escape Hitler. Actually, the Nazis murdered 6 million jews and 5 million Gentiles in their concentration camps. Anne Frank died of Nazi-induced typhus in Bergen-Belsen. So much for safety under the Nazis. One of Bobby’s sisters said his “lies” were “sickening and destructive.” His own wife called his remarks “reprehensible.” And we’re supposed to think he’s trustworthy on public health issues?
Nobody can know precisely when the next pandemic will hit, but it’s safe to say the chances of one coming our way and inflicting maximum damage are greater than might otherwise be the case, given the fecklessness of Bobby and the irresponsibility of President Trump in making him HHS Secretary in the first place. To better prepare for the next pandemic, two measures should be taken:
First, to elicit the most helpful information from Dr. Fauci, the Senate should grant him personal immunity from the consequences of anything he says truthfully in future hearings. Losing the chance to see him imprisoned will be more than compensated for by acquiring the knowledge he’s gained over the decades in pandemic-fighting.
Second, while fairness to Bobby requires acknowledgement that under pressure he’s apologized for his Nazi-related remarks and grudgingly admitted that parents should have their children vaccinated for measles, nonetheless, he should be replaced with someone—preferably a medical or public health doctor—who better understands modern science—especially medical science.
Public health is too important to be left to the tender mercies of vengeful politicians more interested in jailing those with whom they disagree than in acquiring more knowledge on how to cope with pandemics, and crackpots too obsessed with baseless theories to learn what must truly be done to cope with the reality of pandemics and how to fight them.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville Economic Development Authority since 2018, and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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