Commentary
Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, infamously boasted, “I represent science.” Let’s hope not. His actions during the COVID emergency both corrupted science and undermined trust in our most important public health institutions.
Early in the pandemic, I believed Fauci would approach his duties with integrity and intellectual rigor. After all, he effectively engaged the struggle against AIDS—such as assisting President George W. Bush in creating the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has saved countless lives around the world—and I expected that he would perform his COVID duties with similar excellence. I also thought highly of Francis Collins, who once headed the Human Genome Project and went on to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH)….