Dr. Anthony Fauci struck a defensive tone while wordsmithing his way around how he and the government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in a recent interview. While he admitted mistakes despite his ‘best’ efforts, he continued to excuse himself of any wrongdoing.

“Show me a school that I shut down and show me a factory that I shut down. Never. I never did,” Fauci said when questioned about the repercussions of overreaching public health policies in a recent New York Times interview. “I gave a public health recommendation that echoed the CDC’s recommendation, and people made a decision based on that. But I never criticized the people who had to make the decisions one way or the other.”

The response was only one of many which danced around the fact that his strongly-worded recommendations resulted in the formation of COVID laws which have since proven detrimental to the economy and the well-being of the population. Fauci repeatedly pushed back against critics who have accused him of misguiding the public about everything from masks to the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

One of the most contentious matters Fauci spearheaded as the spokesperson of the pandemic response was the mask mandates that ended up spreading through the nation. While Fauci had initially communicated that masking was pointless, he later became a staunch supporter of the now-disproven benefits of wearing face coverings.

Fauci went on to admit that his flipflopping on policies and the divisive nature of the mandates “intensified the culture wars, making things worse.” The retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases cited that vaccine policies likely backfired as many were becoming skeptical of the wishy-washy public health guidance.

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