“Show me a school that I shut down,” Anthony Fauci challenged his critics in Congress. “I never did.”
As America’s top infectious disease official during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci often brushed off criticisms, insisting that he never shut anything down.
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His defense is not a total lie. On the literal level, Fauci didn’t have the authority to close schools. Secondly, he had a mixed record when it came to closing schools and keeping them closed. In fact, Fauci, after the 2020 election, began publicly saying we should open schools and close bars.
But Fauci’s defense against the school-closer charge is still misleading on at least three fronts:
- He did advocate school closures early on.
- He promulgated safety standards (most importantly the 6-foot social distancing standard) that were not required by science and did force school closures.
- Throughout the summer of 2020, when Democrats were attacking President Donald Trump for advocating the reopening of schools in the fall, Fauci took the Democrats’ side.
Fauci’s diaries, published over the weekend, make this third point clear. Fauci went far beyond the science, alleging that letting kids go to school was dangerous for them and for the community. Data shows that this is false. He also basically ignored the negative effects of the closures.
First, Fauci advised local leaders to close schools in March 2020. This was an understandable error (one I made myself). But it undermines his claim that he never closed a school.
Here’s a passage from a March 15, 2020, diary entry: “I spoke with Bill de Blasio (Mayor – NYC) and convinced him based on what I was saying publicly and my conversation tonight to close the NYC schools (he had already decided based on what I was saying on TV)…. I had a similar call with Ann O’Leary, the COS of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Ann said that based on my TV appearances today and yesterday, the Governor has decided to close the schools in California as well as the bars and restaurants.”
The next day, he wrote about his official guidance to “close schools where there is community spread.”
Over the summer, Fauci at first expressed interest in reopening schools, but once Trump began calling for the opening of schools, Fauci became very negative about it.
In July, he wrote, “Clearly Trump is pushing to open the schools no matter what. There is concern about the safety of the children and teachers. Yet, Trump together with [CDC Director Robert] Redfield (being pressured) is saying that the CDC guidelines should not stand in the way of opening schools (what???). Glad that I am not involved in that discussion.”
By this point, it was clear that kids were not getting very sick, and there was no evidence that schools were acting as spreaders. The data now generally show that Redfield was right.
Nevertheless, on July 9, Fauci wrote, “Trump wants to open the schools at all costs. Clearly he does not care about the safety of the children.”
This was overheated political talk ungrounded in data.
IT WASN’T THE VIRUS THAT CLOSED THE SCHOOLS IN 2021. IT WAS DEMOCRATS.
Finally, by late November, after Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Fauci said to open the schools and close the bars.
Whatever you think of Fauci’s reasoning, he cannot claim to be innocent of school closures.
