
Anthony Fauci Pardoned for Being an Eminent Scientist
In case you missed it, we are going through a transition in American government. Unlike four years ago, this one is peaceful and we can look forward to four years of a different approach to government in the United States. One of the most unusual facets of this turning point was an eminent scientist, Anthony Fauci, being pardoned by President Joe Biden early yesterday.
For 28 years, Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 for his work on AIDS. He served as an advisor to every American president since Ronald Reagan, including the incoming president, for whom he was a principal advisor on the COVID pandemic.
Poisonous Politics
However, in the current climate, the poisonous nature of American politics can put even an apolitical and eminent scientist such as Anthony Fauci in need of being pardoned. Fauci did not seek this pardon, but he responded to it, saying:
“Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family.”
A number of persons close to the new administration have called for legal actions against Fauci. The nominee to lead HHS, RFK Jr, has said he would like to prosecute Fauci. Presidential advisor Elon Musk has said “my pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”
Fans of the new president did not like Fauci’s scientific truth telling about the COVID pandemic.
Parallels in China
This situation recalls the case of the physician in China who first reported the emergence of COVID-19 there. Li Wenliang tried to warn his colleagues about the virus in 2019 when the first cases emerged in Wuhan, China. The government reprimanded him for “disrupting public order” and ordered him stop making “false comments.” He eventually died from COVID, which he contracted while caring for patients at Wuhan Central Hospital.
The parallels are deeply disturbing. The best words for what happened come from a Republican past president: “That was some some weird shit.”
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Anthony Fauci, photograph by Christopher Michel, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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January 21, 2025
January 21, 2025 at 6:31 am, Alfred B Lewis said:
He was not right about everything since this was a brand new epidemic, but there would have been many more deaths if, for example, RFK Jr had been making the rules.