The COVID pandemic response was one of the most polarizing episodes in American history.
Americans were locked down. Mandated to wear masks. Coerced into getting shots.
The rights that millions of people believed were inseparable from what it means to be an American were suddenly up for grabs.
And at the center of this controversy was one man: Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Fauci, reviled by the Right, worshiped as a cult figure on the Left, has been a lightning rod of controversy for the pandemic response.
When Biden’s auto-pen issued Dr. Fauci a pre-emptive pardon for any “possible” crimes he may have committed regarding his handling of the COVID response (and quite plausibly, his role in its origins), millions of Americans were rightly incensed.
One figure who had clashed with Dr. Fauci a number of times in Senate testimony is Kentucky senator Dr. Rand Paul.
READ MORE: Hot Takes: Dr. Anthony Fauci's Diary and the Repugnance of Clout Chasing
This week he gave Americans a stark picture of the unfettered megalomaniac operating behind the scenes with the publication of his “diary.”
Fauci's diary, by the numbers: https://t.co/tlt0e86qHk pic.twitter.com/2AI1xrDUrE
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 27, 2026
The Fauci diary, as it has come to be called, is an archive of his reactions to the political tussle with the Trump administration, and more prominently, the fawning press coverage that covered his every move as if he were a medical messiah.
Actual entries from Fauci’s diary
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 27, 2026
Have you ever seen someone this obsessed with themselves?? pic.twitter.com/sWfdFohJF7
The most disturbing of Fauci’s ties to press figures is his cozy relationship with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Jake Tapper was having Fauci over for dinners. Fauci called it "friendship building."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 27, 2026
Tapper told Fauci he "wanted to make sure the interview didn't cause any problems."
Tapper would 'interview' Fauci, and do things like nod along as Fauci blasts red states.
This is CNN. pic.twitter.com/9O042amEDs
The Federalist recounts the dates and an overview of Tapper’s numerous exchanges with Fauci.
On April 14 Fauci had a phone call with Jake Tapper, who “wanted to make sure the interview did not cause me any problems.” In May, Fauci described Tapper and Cuomo as coming to his “defense on their shows.” On July 1 Fauci wrote, “Had dinner over Jake Tapper and Jen Tapper’s home in DC. Terrific couple. Friendship building.” Later that month, Fauci recorded that Jake Tapper “woke me up” after he had gone to bed to express frustration at Donald Trump criticism of Tapper. Fauci had dinner with the Tappers again on Oct. 20, 2020.
The American public at the time was glued to cable news and feverishly monitoring news reports for accurate and objective information about the COVID pandemic.
However, CNN was giving the nation’s top COVID doctor glowing praise for his response, fueling a “cult of personality” that defused critical thinking, and polarizing the public by sensationalizing his political confrontations with the president.
In July 2020, Tapper led an all-out assault on Trump for questioning “The Science”:
“The White House campaign to undermine Dr. Fauci is dishonest. It’s disgusting. It’s deranged. And at a time of a deadly pandemic, it is the ultimate in irresponsibility. Literally, more than 136,000 Americans are dead because of this virus. And instead of an aggressive national testing and contact tracing program, the White House is instead launching an aggressive smear campaign against a guy trying to save our lives.”
Tapper, in a segment in October 2020, lambasted Trump for attacking Fauci:
"We are continuing with the 2020 lead, today, the United States nearing 220,000 deaths from coronavirus, the highest number in the world. And the number of new daily cases of the virus is on the rise once again in the U.S.
"Yet President Trump today has been trashing the nation's top infectious disease expert on Twitter, to reporters, and on a campaign call. The president called Dr. Anthony Fauci a -- quote -- "disaster." And he wildly, falsely claims that the nation would have more than double the number of deaths if he had listened to Fauci advice.
"It's not true. And it's a stunning, yet, sadly, not surprising attack, given the president's clear disregard for the science on controlling this pandemic and his own reckless attitude toward the virus, as can be seen in the rallies he's holding all over the country. He holds two more big rallies again today in Arizona."
This is not journalism. This is a public relations campaign.
Tapper engaged in a few acts of journalism, such as pressing Fauci about a false claim made by the Biden White House attempting to take credit for the COVID vaccines.
Tapper called on the White House chief medical advisor to correct the record.
“I know you don’t tweet from the White House account, but I wanted to raise this because amazingly this White House tweet is still up,” Tapper said. He added:
CNN fact checker Daniel Dale points out more than 3 million Americans had been fully vaccinated, more than 18 million had at least one shot by inauguration day. I think President Biden, then-president-elect Biden had had two shots by then.
You’re the president’s chief medical adviser, why is the White House politicizing the pandemic by tweeting out there was no vaccine available until Joe Biden became president? It’s not true.
When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available.
— The White House 46 Archived (@WhiteHouse46) May 12, 2022
In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President's term ever recorded.
Fauci, predictably, got very defensive during the confrontation.
“You know, Jake, I’m sorry, I can’t explain every tweet that comes out,” he said. “So you’re talking to the wrong person. I wasn’t involved in the tweet. I just can’t explain it. Sorry.”
Tapper continued to press Dr. Fauci, saying:
“I know you can’t explain it, but certainly you would agree that it’s important to have facts when it comes to assertions being made about the vaccine, whether it’s from the Trump White House or the Biden White House. And certainly you would agree that there was a vaccine available before Joe Biden became president.”
It should be noted that this on-air argument regarded political credit over the COVID shots, not their efficacy at stopping transmission of the virus.
In May 2021, Fauci claimed that the shots were a “dead end” for the virus.
“So even though there are breakthrough infections with vaccinated people, almost always the people are asymptomatic, and the level of virus is so low it makes it extremely unlikely — not impossible but very, very low likelihood — that they’re going to transmit it,” Fauci said.
READ MORE: Fauci's Newly Released Diary Reveals Bizarre Obsession During COVID Pandemic - Himself
“When you get vaccinated, you not only protect your own health and that of the family but also you contribute to the community health by preventing the spread of the virus throughout the community,” Fauci added. “In other words, you become a dead end to the virus. And when there are a lot of dead ends around, the virus is not going to go anywhere. And that’s when you get a point that you have a markedly diminished rate of infection in the community.”
Despite the corporate media claiming this was due to “virus mutation,” there was never evidence provided, nor sound scientific reason to believe, the shots would “stop the spread.”
Indeed, the seroprevalence reports bore that reality out.
A year later, Fauci admitted that there were sound scientific reasons to believe that the vaccines wouldn’t stop infection, due to the way the SARS-CoV-2 virus is spread.
National Review provided an overview in February 2023:
Dr. Anthony Fauci has finally acknowledged that there had always been good scientific reasons to believe that vaccines against the respiratory virus that causes Covid-19 — SARS-CoV-2 — would provide limited protection against infection that would not be long-lasting. That is precisely what happened: It quickly became apparent that protection against transmission lasted just a few months, and initial effectiveness declined as each new viral variant proved more contagious than its predecessor. Yet Fauci insisted that repeated vaccines were needed for everyone and until recently pushed for vaccine mandates. This has resulted in shortages of essential workers, poorer educational outcomes, and diminished trust in public-health authorities.
Last month in an article in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, Fauci wrote that vaccines against respiratory viruses generally provide “decidedly suboptimal” protection against infection and rarely produce durable, protective immunity. The reason is that most of these viruses, such as influenza, which causes the flu, and SARS-CoV-2, have short incubation periods during which they infect the respiratory mucosa and rapidly replicate there without spreading systemically. Moreover, according to Fauci, the human immune system has evolved to tolerate respiratory viruses during short intervals of mucosal viral replication. This leads to illness and onward transmission without eliciting a systemic immune response.
Thus, “the Science” didn’t change. Fauci’s narrative did.
Tapper isn’t the only CNN host guilty of lionizing Fauci, rather than providing objective news coverage.
Dana Bash gushed over Fauci as if he were a “superhero.”
So 'journalist' Dana Bash was emailing Fauci fun little attacks on Republicans, while having him on her show to tee him up as "superhero."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 27, 2026
This is CNN.pic.twitter.com/IpQAaeEzd5 https://t.co/pddxBsANfF
It is six years since news about the COVID pandemic broke. The American public is still waiting for a public apology, in addition to serious accountability, over the COVID response.
Judging by the media’s near-blackout over the Fauci diary, nobody should be holding their breath.
