{"id":30091,"date":"2022-11-08T09:22:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T14:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=30091"},"modified":"2022-11-08T09:22:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T14:22:50","slug":"fauci-claims-he-had-nothing-to-do-with-school-closures-his-own-statements-suggest-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2022\/11\/08\/fauci-claims-he-had-nothing-to-do-with-school-closures-his-own-statements-suggest-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Fauci Claims He Had \u2018Nothing to Do\u2019 With School Closures. His Own Statements Suggest Otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once quipped, \u201cNothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The line comes to mind after watching Dr. Anthony Fauci\u2019s interview with ABC\u2019s Jonathan Karl over the weeknd. In the interview, Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was asked whether it was a “mistake” for schools to remain shut down for so long during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t want to use the word \u2018mistake,\u2019 Jon, because if I do, it gets taken out of the context that you\u2019re asking me the question on,” Fauci explained on Sunday. “We should realize, and have realized, that there will be deleterious collateral consequences when you do something like that.”<\/p>\n

Fauci is correct that there were serious \u201cdeleterious\u201d consequences of school closures. For example, it was recently reported that the class of 2022 saw average ACT scores plummet<\/a> to the lowest level in more than thirty years, and there\u2019s no reason to believe that younger students didn\u2019t experience similar results. Lost learning is hardly the only \u201cdeleterious\u201d consequence, however; the decline of mental health among youths<\/a> during lockdowns has also been well chronicled.<\/p>\n

Some may see Fauci\u2019s response as reasonable, because he\u2019s now acknowledging the collateral damage of these policies. The problem is that Fauci is not actually conceding anything. Nobody\u2014and I mean nobody\u2014ever believed you could shut down schools (and society more broadly) for any meaningful amount of time and not experience some \u201cdeleterious\u201d consequences.<\/p>\n

But it gets worse. Fauci goes on to claim he had nothing to do<\/em> with the damaging policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask anybody to go back over the number of times that I have said we\u2019ve got to do everything we can to keep the schools open, no one plays that clip,\u201d Fauci told Karl. \u201cThey always come back and say, \u2018Fauci was responsible for closing schools.\u2019 I had nothing to do [with it].\u201d<\/p>\n