‘Flawed Both Conceptually & In Practice’: Dr. Fauci Shreds The Great Barrington Declaration

5 months ago

During a House Select Committee on the Coronavirus hearing on Monday, Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI) slammed attacks against Dr. Anthony Fauci about his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and questioned him about herd immunity, mortality rates and The Great Barrington Declaration.

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Transcript

00:00 Uta from Hawaii for five minutes of questions.

00:02 Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I hope I'll have an additional 30 seconds like the previous gentleman. And Dr. Fauci-

00:08 I have allowed that today on several occasions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Fauci, you deserve better than this.

00:13 The other side suddenly cares about puppies, ironic given recent book publications versus the millions of people

00:20 that you have kept safe and alive over your lifelong commitment to public health.

00:24 I'd like to use my time to dispel some of the myths about you that have circulated in right-wing circles

00:29 We can all acknowledge that yes, suspension of in-person activities during the early days of COVID

00:35 It was necessary to save lives and to stop the spread and and it was not without its challenges

00:40 It was difficult particularly for our nation's students like my two sons in public schools and our business owners

00:46 But to completely blame these policies on you, Dr. Fauci is absolutely ridiculous

00:51 I'd like to make the record clear on something the decision to suspend in-person learning dining and other activities

00:57 That was not a decision that you were somehow solely

01:00 Responsible for including in your role as NIAID director. Is that correct?

01:04 In fact, these decisions were actually made at the state and local level in communities across the country like my home state of Hawaii

01:11 Which was particularly aggressive in part as a response to the Trump administration's early failure to contain the initial outbreak

01:19 Of the virus. Is that not correct? I'm sorry. I didn't

01:23 Ma'am, I'm not really hearing you very well. Could you just put you we'll put it a little bit closer

01:28 But to be clear that the decisions were actually made at the state and local levels in communities across the country. That is correct

01:35 Okay. Thank you

01:36 Now I'd like to shift topics and turn to the allegation that you sought to suppress opposing viewpoints about the pandemic response over the past

01:43 15 months

01:45 Majority members of this subcommittee have levied the allegation that federal health officials censored proposals like the Great Barrington Declaration

01:52 Which were inconsistent with the overwhelming consensus of the scientific and medical community much attention has been paid to an email. Dr

02:00 Francis Collins sent you regarding the Great Barrington Declaration

02:02 Where he called for a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises to be clear. This was not dr

02:10 Collins suggesting that you suppress or censor the Great Barrington Declaration

02:14 Rather he was suggesting that the points you just explained be memorialized to substantively refute this

02:21 Scientific premises of the Great Barrington Declaration. Is that correct? Yes, and there was good reason for dr

02:29 Collins to have substantive concerns the Great Barrington Declaration

02:32 proposed lifting mitigation measures for the vast majority of society and preserving them only for certain populations including the elderly and people with

02:40 underlying health conditions

02:42 This was months before a vaccination was available and public health systems are already being overwhelmed

02:48 And thousands of Americans were dying daily. Dr. Fauci. What percentage of the population did we estimate needed to be infected with kovat?

02:55 Before we would achieve so-called herd immunity

02:59 Herd immunity was very elusive with kovat and the Great Barrington Declaration

03:04 Was flawed both conceptually and in practice

03:09 Conceptually that you could shield

03:11 Vulnerable people as if the only vulnerable people of those in nursing homes

03:17 We have tens and tens of millions of vulnerable people that you couldn't possibly

03:21 Shield people with underlying conditions the elderly those would be the individuals

03:28 So it would be conceptually impossible to do that

03:31 Herd immunity as we know

03:34 means if you have a virus that doesn't change and a virus in which when you get infected or

03:41 Vaccinated you have highly durable perhaps lifelong immunity. That's not the case with kovat

03:49 We know immunity wanes and we have multiple variants

03:53 So in practical purposes the Great Barrington Declaration was invalid both

03:59 conceptually and

04:01 Practically Thank You. Dr

04:03 Fauci vast answered a few of my other questions in terms of the fact that for many of us that live in multi-generational

04:08 communities

04:10 Thousands hundreds of thousands millions more lives would have been impacted by this so-called

04:15 Approach and given the fact that the virus is rabbit evolution that we have since seen since 2020

04:20 Herd immunity approaches would be absolutely ineffective against kovat if you would answer one more question

04:26 Considering the mortality rates at the time. How many more deaths might we have seen just briefly? I

04:31 Mean if we had done that just let it rip there very likely would have been another million people would have died. I would imagine

04:38 Thank You. Dr. Fauci. So it wasn't the federal government suppressing the Great Barrington Declaration rather

04:43 It was about protecting and saving millions of American lives the kovat 19 pandemic wasn't some academic exercise

04:50 It was real it was in real time is about saving lives in real time theories like herd immunity may seem plausible on paper

04:58 but we have to remember that it is based upon the assumption that enough people would have to be infected and

05:03 That would likely have meant that our family members our friends our neighbors our constituents

05:08 Especially those in our most marginalized multi-generational rural communities would have died. So, thank you. Dr. Fauci

05:16 I want to thank you not blame you. Thank you for your science

05:19 Thank you for your science that have saved millions of American lives kept us safe

05:24 Including my children many of our families right here on this dais and thank you for clarifying these points for the record and for all

05:30 Of your efforts to keep us safe during the pandemic and so many other health crises

05:35 We have faced over the decades that you have served Mahalo, Mr. Chair, and I yield back

05:39 Now recognize dr. McCormick for five minutes of questions. Thank you

‘Flawed Both Conceptually & In Practice’: Dr. Fauci Shreds The Great Barrington Declaration

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