A tale of two Fauci's -- Part 3 (Explanation)

 Last update: Sunday 7/11/21

Editor's caveat -- Readers are strongly advised to read Part 1 and Part 2 of this trio of notes before reading Part 3.

This final leg of the triad provides a logical explanation for why "Dr. Fauci" repeatedly claimed that some of the most important task force/CDC guidelines were based on science, rather than admit that they were judgement calls made in the fog of our war against the coronavirus.

Another caveat: Readers should understand that the following explanation is logical, but it is not necessarily an accurate description of what "Dr. Fauci" was really thinking when he said or did some of the things the explanation cites in support of its assertions.  

Assumptions

This discussion assumes that "Dr. Fauci" -- the character seen on reality TV news shows throughout 2020, e.g., the Trump task force presentations and cable TV interviews --  had an overarching goal that guided his behavior throughout 2020 ==> He wanted to save lives. This is the same goal that he had in his role as Dr. Fauci, the mastermind behind the successful efforts of Operation Warp Speed to develop highly effective vaccines in eight or nine months, less than half the time it normally requires.

The discussion also assumes that when "Dr. Fauci" was appointed to President Trump's task force in February 2020 he was keenly aware of the following constraints on the success of the task force:

1. President Trump's well known contempt for science ... with one ironic exception: The president was counting on the success of Operation Warp Speed, a massive scientific R&D effort, to return the U.S. economy to normal and thereby guarantee his reelection in November 2020.
   
   
2.  "Dr. Fauci" was the only member of the task force who was indispensable because of his central role in Operation Warp Speed as Dr. Fauci. President Trump might remove anyone else from the task force on a moment's notice. But if he dismissed Fauci, the big pharma participants in Warp Speed might suspend their efforts, thereby delaying their successful completion to some time after the election.
   
   
3. The central role the CDC ... Although the task force advised the president, the thousands of employees of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would perform the lion's share of the data collection, analysis, derivation of specific guidance, and persuasion of a super majority of the U.S. population to follow this guidance for the duration of the pandemic.
   
   
4. The CDC's many deficiencies ... Dr. Fauci's interactions with the CDC over the course of his fifty year tenure at NIH made "Dr. Fauci" aware long before February 2020 of something that it took the rest of us many months to perceive ==> The CDC was not up to the challenge of providing clear, timely, consistent guidance for the nation's efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus. This was true under President Trump, and it continues to be true under President Biden. The reader is referred to following articles for a few examples of the CDC's shortfalls.
   
   -- "C.D.C. Labs Were Contaminated, Delaying Coronavirus Testing, Officials Say", Sheila Kaplan, NY Times, Sunday 4/19/20 
   
   -- "How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?’", Alexis C. Madrigal and Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 5/21/20
   
   -- "The CDC Waited 'Its Entire Existence for this Moment.' What Went Wrong", Eric Lipton, Abby Goodnough, Michael D. Shear, Megan Twohey, Apoorva Mandavilli, Sheri Fink and Mark Walker, NY Times, 6/3/20
   
   -- "CDC director warns of 'impending doom' as Covid-19 cases spike in most states", Christina Maxouris and Holly Yan, CNN, 3/29/21
   
   -- But barely two months later ==>"Vaccinated Americans May Go Without Masks in Most Places, Federal Officials Say", Roni Caryn Rabin, Apoorva Mandavilli and Noah Weiland, NY Times, 5/13/21
   
   -- "Federal Mask Retreat Sets Off Confusing Scramble for States and Cities", Edgar Sandoval, Kate Taylor and Mitch Smith, NY Times, 5/14/21
   
   -- "COVID proved the CDC is broken. Can it be fixed?", Jeneen Interland, NY Times, 6/16/21
   
   

Using science as a shield to ensure the public trust 

After the task was convened in March 2020, President Trump displayed his disdain for using biomedical science to set public expectations about the virus, insisting time and again that the virus would just "disappear"

• "‘It’s going to disappear’: Trump’s changing tone on coronavirus", Dan Goldberg, Politico, 3/20/20

It didn't take long for "Dr. Fauci" to realize that this would be the president's modus operandi throughout the duration of the pandemic, saying whatever he thought was expedient, regardless of the facts. It would make the efforts of the task force and CDC to manage the pandemic immeasurably more difficult. 

Dr. Fauci had served as a high level adviser to six successive U.S. presidents, so he was well aware of the protocol:

• If you disagree with something a president says, you must express your reservations in private conversations with the president. You don't raise them in public forums, like the televised task force presentations. If you are unable persuade the president to change his position, you should be quiet ... or resign. 

We should assume that "Dr. Fauci" voiced his concerns to President Trump in private, but he was not quiet in public and he did not resign ... the president was furious ... but he could not remove "Dr. Fauci" from the task force. As we noted in our earlier discussion of constraints on the task force, removing "Dr. Fauci" might have caused the big pharma participants in Operation Warp Speed to suspend their efforts to develop a vaccine, thereby delaying the successful completion of these developments to some time after the election.

"Dr. Fauci" ultimately trumped President Trump by invoking our society's highest secular authority: science. He might have conceded that some of the most important recommendations from the task force and the CDC were judgment calls, i.e., rational decisions based on limited data because a substantial body of scientific studies of coronavirus management techniques did not exist. As consequence their recommendations were based on limited data plus past professional experience and common sense. However the problem with judgement calls in this instance is that they could be challenged by reasonable minds, especially given the fact that nobody on the planet had any professional experience in managing a substantial portion of a world wide pandemic, the last one having occurred in 1918.

Instead, "Dr. Fauci" repeatedly claimed that the CDC/task force recommendations were prescribed by "the science", implying that they were supported by a substantial body of scientific studies. Therefore anyone who opposed them was anti-science.  This rhetorical shoe was a perfect fit for President Trump's blatant disdain for science; but it was just clever rhetoric. Nevertheless "Dr. Fauci's" soothing rhetoric boosted the confidence of a substantial portion of the American public in the recommendations put forth by the task force and the CDC, holding firm even as the CDC fumbled again and again and again. Alas, "Dr. Fauci's" rhetoric also contributed to the politicization of the pandemic.

"Dr. Fauci's" political friends and enemies

• Enemies of my enemies are my friends
  Democrats and the dominant liberal/progressive media who loathed President Trump hailed "Dr. Fauci", his most prominent public critic, as their friend and hero. As pointed out in previous segments of this note, the liberal/progressive media elevated him to a status akin to that of a pope, a man whose pronouncements were not to be challenged.
  
  
• Enemies of my friends are my enemies
  Republicans and the conservative media loyal to President Trump damned "Dr. Fauci" as the personification of the treacherous "deep state", i.e, a high level federal official who criticizes the president and pushes his own agenda, instead of supporting the president's agenda.  

Early sniping at "Dr. Fauci" by Trump and surrogates

• "Trump Has Given Unusual Leeway to Fauci, but Aides Say He’s Losing His Patience", Maggie Haberman, NY Times, 3/23/20
• "Trump Lashes Out at Fauci Amid Criticism of Slow Virus Response", Peter Baker, NY Times, 4/12/20
• "Trump Pointedly Criticizes Fauci for His Testimony to Congress", Katie Rogers, NY Times, 6/30/20
• "After Attacks From Trump Aides, Fauci Says ‘Let’s Stop This Nonsense’ and Focus on Virus", Katie Rogers, NY Times, 7/15/20

Trump's open warfare against "Dr. Fauci" in weeks before the 2020 election

• "Trump Calls Fauci ‘a Disaster’ and Shrugs Off Virus as Infections Soar", Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Maggie Haberman and Noah Weiland, NY Times, 10/19/21
• "Trump Suggests He May Fire Fauci ‘After the Election’", NY Times, 11/2/20

Our tale's final chapters 

As we come to the end of our tale we know that it won't have an unmixed happy ending. It is still the worst of times because too many people have died from the coronavirus, over 600,000; and it's likely that at least another 75,000 to 100,000 may die before the end of 2022 because they weren't vaccinated. 

On the other hand, it is still the best of times because the super fast development of highly effective vaccines by Trump's Operation Warp Speed and Biden's super intensive vaccination efforts during the first half of 2021 has held the death count to 600,000; otherwise it might have soared to twice that many by the end of this year, 2021.  

And there is one more blessing. On the one hand, Donald J. Trump will probably go down in history as one of the most irresponsible occupants of the Oval Office if only because of his failure to implement a rapid top-to-bottom reorganization of the CDC and because of his failure to use his power under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to whomp up the production of N95 masks to the point that they would have been available, not just to health care professionals, but to everyone. His failure to carry out either of these executive responsibilities caused us to suffer more deaths per 100,000 by a wide margin than of all of the other advanced nations in the world. 

On the other hand our social mitigation efforts might have incurred far more deaths were it not for the courage of Anthony Fauci who never wavered in his rational plea for adherence to the CDC's guidance, rather than to the whims of an ill-informed president. Few of us could appreciate the depth of his bravery until we witnessed Mr. Trump's treacherous "Big Lie" to overthrow the election and his seditious instigation of the insurrection on January 6th, 2021. Had he been reelected, his pre-election threats to fire "Dr. Fauci" would probably have been the least dangerous retribution he would have inflicted on him.

We close this discussion by invoking our Dr. Fauci/"Dr. Fauci" metaphor one last time. As many readers may be aware, Anthony Fauci was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2008. Colin Powell received this medal twice in 1991, and again in 1993, which shows that recipients can receive this award more than once. Accordingly, we suggest that President Biden award two more medals to Anthony Fauci: one for brilliance in his role as Dr. Fauci, the mastermind behind Operation Warp Speed, the other for courage in his role as "Dr. Fauci", an unwavering voice of reason in an unreasonable administration.

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Related notes on this blog:

• "An open letter to President Biden regarding the critical need to reorganize the CDC immediately", Last update: 6/17/21
  
  
• "A tale of two Fauci's -- Part 2 ("Dr. Fauci")", Last update: 7/6/21
  
  
• "A tale of two Fauci's -- Part 1 (Dr. Fauci)", Last update: 6/26/21