Anthony Fauci Says Don’t Blame Him for Covid Lockdowns and School Closures

April 26, 2023

Fauci says public officials should have listened to other advisers and made better decisions. That’s true! It’s also incredibly frustrating.

by Eric Boehm Reason.com

If you’re looking for someone to blame for the infamous “15 days to slow the spread” that turned into more than a year of shuttered schools, closed businesses, and fraying social connections, Anthony Fauci says don’t look at him.

“Show me a school that I shut down and show me a factory that I shut down,” says Fauci, the former White House coronavirus czar and now-retired public health official who became the face of both the Trump and Biden administrations’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a lengthy sit-down with The New York Times. “Never. I never did.”

The interview is framed by the Times as an inside look at Fauci as he “wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic—and the decisions that will define his legacy.” But when it comes time to answer the tough questions about who was at fault for America’s botched response to COVID-19, the good doctor is happy to pass the buck.