[ad_1]
Dr. Anthony Fauci is preparing to leave the public stage — but health experts worry the toxic atmosphere surrounding him will last for years to come.
Fauci’s opinion among the general public is along partisan lines, but most experts think he’s done as good a job as anyone could in controlling a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
They worry that his relentless personal attacks are an example of a broad, cynical tone for scientific knowledge and advice.
Lawrence Gustin, who specializes in public health at Georgetown Law, has known Facchi for half a century and counts him as a friend.
“It’s caught up in the politics of American culture and it’s been caught up in the COVID culture wars over the years,” Gostin lamented.
Gostin, who said he shared Fauci’s concern over the “toxicity” of some of the attacks, expressed concern about the overall climate around science after Fauci left government service in December.
“Public health and science itself have become pariahs. There’s a lot of attrition, resignations and a lot of burnout throughout the scientific community. People are quitting their jobs, or when they’re continuing their jobs, they’re putting their heads down,” he said.
It’s amazing to think how different things looked just a few years ago.
In the year As the pandemic unfolded in early 2020, Fauci appeared to largely prove himself as a national presence. The White House briefing he was leading when he caught Covid-19 should have been seen by many Americans.
An April 2020 New York Magazine article featured a headline about how Fauci was “America’s Doctor.” According to one poll, Fauci’s approval rating is close to 80 percent.
In time, however, President Trump, the sixth of seven presidents he served, would be labeled a “danger.” He needs a personal security detail to protect him and his family from many dangers. And it will be one of the foremost targets of conservatives in general.
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told an Orlando rally after Fauci announced that he would soon end his 38-year tenure. Elf and hurried him across the Potomac.
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has repeatedly crossed swords with Fauci over US funding for research in China, said it would be bad if the scientist was “a family doctor in Peoria.” The effect of his advice was that only those “foolish enough to choose him as a doctor” would be affected.
“Once you put him in charge of the world, everything falls apart,” Paul added, according to NBC News reporter Kate Santaliz in a series of tweets.
The conservative media also piled on.
“F— you, Dr. Fauci,” Megyn Kelly told her podcast listeners Wednesday as she complained about Fauci’s equivalent response to a hypothetical subpoena from Republicans in Congress.
Given such feedback, it’s no wonder that 80 percent approval ratings are a thing of the past.
In a June Economist-YouGov poll, 43 percent of Americans viewed Fauci favorably, while 41 percent viewed him favorably. Among Republicans, he was viewed as unfavorable by only 18 percent and 70 percent.
Fauci’s defenders do not claim that he is omniscient or infallible.
In the early days of the epidemic, the general public argued against the need to wear masks, but later changed its tune significantly.
The pros and cons of other initiatives, particularly widespread school closures, will be debated for years, perhaps even decades — though in that case, Fauci himself says it’s important to try to minimize the negative effects on children.
Still, most people in the public health sphere remember that at first, Fauci faced an almost impossible task: trying to convey clear messages about a new and deadly virus that little was known about.
Second, they say, instances where recommendations have changed — like wearing a mask — show scientists doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing: incorporating new information into their views.
“Changing policy is the cornerstone of sound public health policy,” said former Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leanna Wen. “As new research comes out, the guidelines will change accordingly, or as conditions change, the guidelines will change as well.”
For figures like Wen, the kind of attacks aimed at Fauci — and at her, as she became a prominent media presence at the time of the outbreak — are far from explicable.
On Tuesday, a Texas man was sentenced to six months in prison for threatening Wen. Prosecutors say Scott Ellie Harris, 52, became angry over her support for Covid-19 vaccines and sent her a message threatening to hit her.
In the message, Harris claimed to be an Army veteran and sniper, according to a CBS News report.
On Thursday, another charge was dropped in which a man allegedly threatened Wen.
Earlier this month, a West Virginia man received three years in prison for emailing death threats to Fauci.
“It’s very difficult,” Wen told this column. “We’re trying to do our jobs, we’re trying to advise our patients on how to protect themselves and their families… [and] We are worried about our lives and worried about our families.
As an aside, the deep division around Fachi also worries many political experts.
“It’s one of the best examples of how deep the polarization is, because you take someone who you don’t normally see through a political lens, and instead it seems like the only way to see him,” said Grant Reher. Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School.
“He’s a folk hero among Democrats and a mild version of Satan among Republicans.”
“It’s time to pursue the next phase of my career,” said Fauci, 81.
But the public is not going to close the book easily on the current information that has been circulating around it during the covid.
The Note is a column reported by Niall Stanage.
[ad_2]
Source link
