Credibility is an essential component of any successful public health campaign. As federal officials push for everyone to get vaccinated and avoid infection by the delta variant, they cannot afford to rely on those who have forfeited the public trust. For that reason, it is time to fire Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci’s flexibility with the truth surfaced early in the COVID-19 pandemic when he first advised against mask-wearing as a precaution against the coronavirus. He later flip-flopped, calling for mandatory mask-wearing, and he had the temerity to become irritated with those who questioned his thinking. “We need to put that nonsense behind us about ‘well, they keep changing their minds,’” Fauci dismissively said of his own abrupt reversal. But it is not “nonsense” — it is both reasonable and necessary to demand answers when supposed experts change their minds abruptly about a fundamental and critical issue.