Fauci and White Coat Censorship On Trial
More than 50 government officials across a dozen agencies, the Epoch Times reports, were involved in applying pressure to social media companies to censor users. Officials refusing to provide answers include Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984.
The case, Missouri et al v. Biden et al, is now in federal court under judge Terry Doughty. Jenin Younes of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, and an attorney for some of the plaintiffs, notes that Dr. Fauci had “demanded that specific individuals, including two of our clients, Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, be censored on social media.” Dr. Bhattacharya, of Stanford Medical School, and Dr. Kulldorff of Harvard, are co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which took issue with Dr. Fauci on the issue of lockdowns.
As we noted, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins tasked Dr. Fauci to conduct “a quick and devastating public takedown” of the Great Barrington scientists, smeared as “fringe epidemiologists.”
In an Epoch Times commentary, Bhattacharya and Kulldorff wondered if Collins and Fauci ever read the GBD and why they opted for a “takedown” instead of “vigorous scientific discussion.” The GBD authors recall the harm caused by the lockdowns caused, particularly the school shutdowns that harmed children without affecting disease spread. That damage will take years to reverse, but the authors have thoughts on ways to avoid similar disasters.
The NIH director commands a budget of $42.9 billion and the NIAID $6.1 billion. “If we want scientists to speak freely in the future, we should avoid having the same people in charge of public health policy and medical research funding.”
Those taking issue with NIH and NIAID pronouncements have found themselves censored by social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter. As we noted in 2018, Sen. Cory Gardner asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg if the federal government had ever demanded that Facebook remove a page from the site. Zuckerberg said, “yes, I believe so,” but did not indicate the content of the page, which government official had demanded its removal, and when the removal had taken place.
Judge Doughty has also ruled that Dr. Fauci’s communications are relevant to claims of suppression of free speech over the COVID-19 lab-leak theory. Dr. Fauci, who funded dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, maintains that the COVID virus arose naturally in the wild.
Anthony Fauci earned a medical degree in 1966 but in 1968 took a job with the NIH. Dr. Fauci’s bio showed no advanced degrees in molecular biology or biochemistry, but in 1984 the NIH made Dr. Fauci director of NIAID. Nobel laureate Kary Mullis, inventor of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), maintained that Dr. Fauci was unqualified for the post. Dr. Fauci now claims, “I represent science,” and that his critics are only attacking science itself.
“It is time for Dr. Fauci to answer for his flagrant disregard for Americans’ constitutional rights and civil liberties,” proclaimed attorney Jenin Younes. Judge Doughty gave Dr. Fauci 21 days to comply.
