A Tribute to the Retired Anthony Fauci...

Total incompetence. From the first scare calls on the death rate, which as I pointed out at the time was clearly much lower based on the Diamond Princess experience. Then there was the No mask/ you have to wear mask thing. The leap in front of the cameras to promote Remdesivir  which turned out to be a complete dud.

The fact we had vaccines which saved millions of lives was down to Trump accelerating the approval process and the drug companies accepting the challenge. Fauci had nothing to do with it.

A bureaucrat who did much more harm than good.

Mozart

I have to agree with you.   Any bureaucrat should not be retained in service after reaching the age of  65 and  Faucci was a bureaucrat.    His role in funding of research at the Wuhan laboratory is typical of what is a disastrous career over the last decade at least.

He is on the waiting list for a long list of real investigations by the House Republicans and life won't be easy for him.   I think that is really why he retired and will be out after January 2023 hoping that the threat of a House investigation of him will now not be on the cards.          

He served under 7 POTUS over 4 decades....Funny,,,,,of all the Presidents, Trump was the only one who disliked him.

It’s not even in doubt….I worked with these departments for decades. They are highly bureaucratic, slow moving and risk averse. We got the vaccines so soon because Trump applied great pressure. Even Biden agrees:

‘Let me be clear. Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America was one of the first countries to get the vaccine,” Biden said. “Thanks to my administration and the hard work of Americans, we led a roll out, made America among the world leaders in getting shots in arms.” 

Trump told Fox News later on Tuesday that he appreciated Biden’s comments.

“I was surprised to hear it,” Trump said. “I think it was a terrific thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy.”

The 45th President said he hoped Biden’s comments will “help a lot” in bridging political divides in the country”.

..   …

Even if you dislike somebody, the failure to view his activities impartially is simply uneducated…..like the  3 musketeers of bias, Anger, Peeper and Quisling.

Schplottttttttt!

Are you seriously suggesting that if another person was President they would have thought hey this Covid pandemic is an absolutely unprecedented situation with thousands if not millions of lives on the line as well as the damage its doing to the economy, but my government is just going sit on its ass and let the development of vaccines occur at normal speed?

Even if you dislike somebody, the failure to view his activities impartially is simply uneducated.

I've no problem saying he did a good job with the fast tracking of vaccine approval and implementing Operation Warp Speed. However I'm pretty confident in believing that any other President would of done something extremely similar in the same situation. That and the fact he pretty much botched the handling of every other aspect of the Covid pandemic that I'd also very confident America would have been far better off during the pandemic had pretty much anyone else bar him been President.

I disagree. Trump never respected the institutional views of the Washington institutions. He challenged the Fed and he refused to accept the timelines originally put out there for the vaccines. And he was heavily criticized for saying vaccines would be available within a year.

But his timetable gave the vaccine manufactures the green light to go ahead full steam…..and put public pressure on the bureaucrats to speed things up.

I have no doubt he saved millions of lives. In saying that I don’t for one second believe he added anything to the technical debate, but a typical president would have accepted the advice of his ‘experts’. This was one time you needed a maverick.

America was lucky that the European who invented the BioNTech vaccine sold himself to the highest bidder. (It was rebranded to Pfizer/BioNTech- made in America).

The owner of BioTech has repeatedly stated that they were not part of Project Warped Drive. 
They did not accept funding or support, other than a pre-order (along with pre-orders from many other countries).  

Moderna is now a good vaccine, but it took ages for it to ramp up the supply. 

Where Trump should get credit for stealing PPE by outbidding pre-orders by other countries. 
Large orders never arrived in Europe, after it transpired Trump had bought the stock at higher prices just before it was shipped. Trumpism America First would have destroyed trading relationships with the EU if he got a 2nd term. Germany despises him. 

Although that is purely about Trump trying to get more votes, nothing else. He could not care if people died otherwise. 

but a typical president would have accepted the advice of his ‘experts’. This was one time you needed a maverick.

I can't imagine given the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic any experts advising him to let vaccine development occur at the normal rate or advising him not to use the resources at his disposal to accelerate vaccine development.

This was Fauci’s focus….a dry well:

It's gonna be really quickly,'' Fauci said on TODAY. "I would project that we're going to be seeing that reasonably soon."

Remdesivir is taken intravenously and takes months to manufacture, raising the question of how quickly it will be able to reach patients in need on a large scale. Fauci's understanding is that will not be an issue.

"I'm pretty confident that will be the case because I believe that they're committed to get this out as quickly as possible,'' he said.

Fauci's comments also come as more states across the country rescind restrictions on public life and reopen businesses. While he believes there will be "blips" of virus hotspots, he also believes states can be successful if they have the infrastructure set up to identify, isolate and contact trace coronavirus cases and "don't just leap over" important steps.

Health experts say they have completed vaccine options ready for testing at a historically fast rate. However, a vaccine available for public use is different than a vaccine ready for the first phase of testing. Experts have emphasized that actual deployment of the vaccine is more than a year away, not a few months, as Trump has suggested.

Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House news conference on Feb. 26: “So although this is the fastest we have ever gone from a sequence of a virus to a trial, it still would not be applicable to the epidemic unless we really wait about a year to a year and a half.”

They castigated Trump, but he turned out to be right and the pressure he exerted saved millions of lives.

The vaccine was already being taken in the UK, which did not have Trump to "Fast Track" to the approval process.

The people who put their necks on the block for approving the vaccine are the ones to be commended- along with the vaccine inventors

This was Fauci’s focus….a dry well:

And just this September the WHO updated their guidelines to recommend use of remdesivir for both non-hospitalized and hospitalized Covid patients

You can send on your apologies to Dr Fauci now.

They castigated Trump, but he turned out to be right and the pressure he exerted saved millions of lives.

Trump likely pulled the few months time frame for the development of the vaccine out of his ass with nothing at the time to back up that assertion. He just wanted something to say that made him look good. The experts much more responsibly erred on the side of caution and predicted something similar to past vaccines developments, likely not wanting people to act if the pandemic was not a problem if a vaccine was right around the corner. Trump got closer to the actual date in the end, though a few months is vague statement, a few months could be anything from 2 to 11 months and probably more through luck and the hard work of the scientific community than any great foresight on Trumps part.

As I said, regardless of who was President, the best and potentially only way out of the pandemic was vaccines and I'm certain the time frame for vaccine development would of been extremely similar under any other President.

Your opinion….based on…? My opinion based on 20 years of working with the FDA. No doubt if we had talked just after Trump put out his aspirational timeline you would have agreed it was impossible. I have no doubt Trump saved millions of lives, which of course you could never concede, because it ruins your narrative.

As for Remdesivir it’s being constantly  studied and some studies show modest benefits, others are disappointing. It’s clearly not the answer Faucci trumpeted in his press conference,

Your opinion….based on…? My opinion based on 20 years of working with the FDA.

Another appeal to authority. But if we are going down that road I'll take Fauci's 50 year career in public health as more authoritative than yours.

No doubt if we had talked just after Trump put out his aspirational timeline you would have agreed it was impossible.

Trump had long since lost any credibility in my eyes, so while I would of been skeptical of his time frame I would have been hopeful that considering the global effort being put into vaccine research that the development of a vaccine would occur quicker than under normal circumstances.

I have no doubt Trump saved millions of lives, which of course you could never concede, because it ruins your narrative.

I have no doubt Trumps total incompetence in handling the pandemic cost more lives than his actions in speeding up the development of the vaccines saved because any other President would have handled every other aspect of the Covid pandemic better than Trump (and I'm not saying they would have been perfect) would have and they would give or take a few weeks got the Covid vaccines out in roughly the same amount of time.

As for narratives, particular in the light of the capitol riots you have to invent this grand story about Trump saving millions of lives to try to justify your support for a man who everyone with with an ounce of decency knew was totally unsuited for the office of President. I suspect after the events of January 6th even you know deep down how stupid and dangerous he is, but you can't publicly admit that. 

As for Remdesivir it’s being constantly  studied and some studies show modest benefits, others are disappointing. It’s clearly not the answer Faucci trumpeted in his press conference,

Indeed many treatments are constantly being studied but the weight of evidence now suggests it does have benefits. As for it being the answer Fauci trumpeted (and that's your phrasing of it), remdesivir he has ultimately been vindicated. Remdesivir has to be viewed in the context of what it is, a treatment for patients with Covid, it was never going to have the same affect as a vaccination program. But Covid treatments like Remdesivir where and are still necessary.

Stav

Read the following on comments made by Dr Death himself:-

"We keep a completely open mind as to what the origin is," Fauci said. "Having said that, if you look at the examination by highly qualified international scientists with no political agendas — they've published in peer-reviewed journals — that all accumulated evidence, particularly relating to the Chinese bringing into the Wuhan market animals from the wild that should not have been there … the evidence is quite strong that this is a natural occurrence."

Now let's get this straight.     Faucci is a habitual liar and his first comments are based on a lie. There were no wild animals sold in the Wuhan Wet Market and that was confirmed by photos of the market - as well as observers from Hong Kong who was aware of the operation of the Wuhan Wet Market. What was indeed sold was fish - nothing else that could have led to the pandemic. The lie that the wild animals sold at the Wuhan market caused the COVID 19 pandemic was circulated by the Chinese Government and the Faucci crowd to draw away attention from the funding of gain in function research by Faucci and his clique .

Trump was just following the Dictatorship playbook of demagogism. I alone can fix it. 

Putin also jumped on the bandwagon of Covid, even going so far as to name the vaccine Sputnik. He pushed through a vaccine that did not go through all of the tests, and therefore potentially unsafe- all for his own grandeur. 


 

Stav

You have been brainwashed beyond believe. -you obviously believe  the BS spouted by the media in the USA.    The  whole pandemic was turned into a political campaign issue by the Democrats  and the lies they spouted were endless - similar to the lies they spouted about the Russian Hoax.   What was not a lie was a campaign promise of Biden and Harris that they would not take the vaccine developed under Trump.   Needless to say they were of the earliest recipients of the vaccines - but their campaign caused thousands of their supporters to refuse to be vaccinated. 

By the way an explanation how Trump fouled up the pandemic handling would be much appreciated.           

Duplication

And along comes Mike and his batshit insane view. Shock horror he blames the democrats/Biden. Mike your political views are beyond a joke at this point yet you have the nerve to call anyone else brainwashed.

Not so much an appeal to authority as a rejection of non authority….in other words you don’t have a clue how the FDA works. And here’s the thing, one doesn’t ask for the judgement of the protagonist when one is trying to assess his veracity.

As for Remdeseivir it’s so effective NICE has advised against it’s use:

LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Britain’s agency that determines if medicines should be used in the National Health Service (NHS), has recommended stopping the use of five COVID-19 treatments, including Merck & Co's (MRK.N)'s antiviral pill for high-risk patients, citing cost-effectiveness concerns.

NICE acknowledged that there is evidence that Merck's molnupiravir and Gilead Sciences Inc's (GILD.O) hospital-administered antiviral remdesivir are effective at treating COVID-19.

But it said it does not recommend their use at current prices because the cost-effectiveness estimates are higher than what it considers an acceptable use of the national health system's resources.

As for Trump you have just articulated your case….he is a man ‘not suited’ to be President. So every accomplishment has to be diminished and every achievement denied.

I prefer to focus on results and the US made great progress on many fronts under Trump. Some of those advances have been lost under Biden, including vast wealth.

But I have said several times on the Board that his re-election strategy was ill conceived and unwise. Do I think Jan 6 was a coup? No it was a protest by a desperate group who feel their voices are not heard. But it was tactically stupid and Trump should have known better.

I have no trouble taking either side in the Trump debate.. chaps like you just can’t get over a visceral dislike.

Not so much an appeal to authority as a rejection of non authority….in other words you don’t have a clue how the FDA works.

And you have no clue about literally any topic but it doesn't stop you from pretending you're an expert on everything.

Where you directly involved in anyway with the development of Opertaion Warp speed, the approval or development of vaccines or Covid treatments? No you're just another keyboard warrior with grand delusions of self importance.

As for Remdeseivir it’s so effective NICE has advised against it’s use:

The recommended against using it due to cost effectiveness. Way to go on providing a non argument to support your position.

As for Trump you have just articulated your case….he is a man ‘not suited’ to be President. So every accomplishment has to be diminished and every achievement denied.

But I have said several times on the Board that his re-election strategy was ill conceived and unwise. Do I think Jan 6 was a coup? No it was a protest by a desperate group who feel their voices are not heard. But it was tactically stupid and Trump should have known better.

I have no trouble taking either side in the Trump debate.. chaps like you just can’t get over a visceral dislike.

Tactically stupid has to be the understatement of the year. It was Trump that put the idea that the election was stolen in to the heads of those protesters that where storming the capital building and you know that idea is absolute bullshit.

The usual tired Hitler analogy…. it’s not “where” it’s “were”….the economy didn’t do ‘decent’ it did ‘decently’ …..it’s not ‘in to’ its ‘into’.

Nope, I’m afraid you are simply not honest enough to give Trump his due. But take heart, there are billions like you.

Gosh how unusual, a politician plants an  idea in his supporters minds. It was standard political tactics….look no further than Hillary Clinton’s Russian Collusion argument you bought, to see a recent analogy.

An idea? How about a brazen and dangerous lie without even a thread of credibility, that if successful would have seen democracy fail in the worlds most powerful country all because Trump threw a hissy fit at loosing. People actually died because of that lie, but hey it just tactically stupid. Go on you keep telling yourself the Russian story was all a hoax despite investigations that found Russia did interfere  in the election and that the Trump campaign expected to benefit from interference. You keep telling yourself that Putin who has now shown his true colors as a mass murderer didn't think he and his regime would benefit from a Trump Presidency. Tell yourself that two events were equivalent if that helps you sleep at night. But like Trump the ability to lie to oneself doesn't make it true.

Nope, I’m afraid you are simply not honest enough to give Trump his due. But take heart, there are billions like you.

There is thankfully less like you who are utterly blinded to the gross incompetence, stupidity, and division amplifying that was the lunacy of Trumps Presidency. Things like the truth and decency matter, something Trump has no concept of.

Stav

I asked a simple question  based on your following statement:-

"I have no doubt Trumps total incompetence in handling the pandemic cost more lives than his actions in speeding up the development of the vaccines saved because any other President would have handled every other aspect of the Covid pandemic better than Trump (and I'm not saying they would have been perfect) would have and they would give or take a few weeks got the Covid vaccines out in roughly the same amount of time."

How was Trump incompetent in handling the pandemic?    You ran for cover by making a total BS statement as to my political views.   What about yours - together with SB and Rooinek you are the worst political BSter on site when it comes to political prejudice.   In that regard I do not really view any politician as better than another.    What I hate in politics are political concocted lies by politicians and bribery and corruption in Government.    In both those cases the Democrats are the real culprits in the USA.    There are Republicans like  the Cheney's and some others who are as corrupt as the Democrats - but they have been identified and is targetted to get them out of politics.  

If you cannot answer the question then say so.    Please also provide the sources for the statement.          

The Russian hoax was explored by every conceivable investigative source and they came up with nothing. Why don’t I believe it? Theoretically because of the failed investigation but more because it simply doesn’t fit with Trump’s persona. He wasn’t going to be subservient to Putin…he is as American as they come, and he was living a great life. So he was going to risk going to jail to get Putin’s help when nobody on the planet, himself included I’m guessing, thought he had a chance to win the election.

Give me a break it was a bizarre idea, now completely discredited.

The Russian hoax was explored by every conceivable investigative source and they came up with nothing.

Nothing...they found the following.

1. That Russia interfered in the election in a sweeping and systematic manner.

2. The Russian interference was done with the goal of aiding Trump winning the Presidency.

3. People within the Trump campaign knew about the elections and expected to benefit from it.

Theoretically because of the failed investigation but more because it simply doesn’t fit with Trump’s persona. He wasn’t going to be subservient to Putin

He didn't need to be subservient to Putin. It served Russia interests for Trump to win because they viewed him quite correctly as a divisive, disruptive, destabilizing and damaging force in American politics and democracy and to the west in general who would strain and divide American-European relations.  They wanted anarchy with Trump and they got it. They didn't have to direct him to do anything. I bet Putin couldn't believe his ears when Trump backed him over his own intelligence service.

So he was going to risk going to jail to get Putin’s help when nobody on the planet, himself included I’m guessing, thought he had a chance to win the election.

Well it might just of been a case that Trump wasn't actively looking for Russian support but they came to him and he wasn't going refuse any help. Considering what we know of Trump know in light of the last election, the man would appear to do anything to win. Of course Trump isn't that bright a fellow and may simply not have thought the interference would have been discovered.

I'm perfectly happy to say the investigation found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. People can have suspicions and make their own mind up on whether he did or not coll ude but ultimately that doesn't matter, in the eyes of the law there was insufficient evidence to suggest collusion.

But I do find it interesting that Trump supports slate the investigation when it did find the Russian's where interfering in the election in a "sweeping and systematic way".

With Trump supporters there was never any anger at the electoral process being interfered with by a foreign power. Had the Russian's been favoring Hilary I suspect they would of been singing from a very different hymn sheet.

They never criticized the Trump campaign members who stayed silent when they knew what the Russian's were doing. No one in his campaign stood up and said the election is being interfered with in a illegal manner by an outside power and we want nothing to do with this, we want to win the election fairly.

Nor given the appalling actions of Putin's Russia in its invasion of Ukraine do Trump supporters ever question why Putin's regime thought it was in their interests to get Trump into the White House.

Suppositions, conjecture and nothing that stood the legal test …..and golly gee, a conspiracy theory. Back in 2016  Putin knew he was going to invade Ukraine in 2022 and Trump was a better bet than Hillary Clinton. 

Hahaha…you can’t make this stuff up….hold on…you can!

Of course Putin knew that he was 'going back to Ukraine ............ after the success of his illegal annexation of Crimea his return was inevitable. This psychopathic evil gobshite's on a mission to rebuild the Russian empire.

Stav 

This is amazing - you cannot answer a simple question and then accuse me of  making statements I cannot prove.    I did provide the prove of my statements - but you chose to ignore it and continue with your conspiracy theories.   

You must be expert in making up BS.   You have no prove of anything you wrote above was to Mozart's question.   1, 2 and 3 are all BS - nothing true about it.  The Russian Hoax was based on lies concocted by the Democrats and the Obama Administration.   There never was any proof of anything about Russian interference  in the election - even the Democratic Party claim that their computer system was hacked was BS.   They never informed the FBI of the hacking and never ask them to undertake an investigation.    Everything that happened as to the Russian Hoax was a lie and you fell for the media hysteria on the issue.

ONE CANNOT BELIEVE THAT AN EDUCTAAED PERSON FELL FOR THE BS IN THE MEDIA THE WAY YOU DID.   All your deductions are illogical and unproved.  They are not real deductions they are total dreamed up BS.    But Goebbels had a system - if a lie i s repeated enough times people may believe it is true.    

There has been enough written proof of corruption under both Obama and now Biden - when Trump became aware of the kickback operations by House members and Senators he stopped foreign Aid programs for further investigation.    The main problem was that cash aid funding for armaments were stopped and Trump ordered the Defense Department to buy armaments in the USA and deliver those to the Ukraine.    That cut the corruption down to nothing and two of the most corrupt House Members (Pelosi and Schiff) started  fake impeachment charges against Trump.       

Now lets get to the latest fiasco.    Of the $40 billion military aid provided to Ukraine $30 billion had been spent - but only $9 billion in arms were actually delivered to Ukraine.    Of the armaments according to Ukraine military officers only 30% were actually delivered to the army - that was confirmed by testimony under oath in the Senate.   So $30 billion was spent and out of that arms to the value of $3 billion was actually delivered to the Ukraine army.   In the meantime the Biden Administration wants approval for military aid to the value of an additional $32 billion.

The new House Majority wants a complete audit done about the spending of the $30 billion and in that some Democrat members support the idea,    Your wonderful Biden Administration is in trouble and a large number of Democrats will be lucky and will need total protection by the FBI and Justice Department to stay out of jail.