Dr. Fauci Gives Very Unscience-y Answer When Asked 'What's the Science' by CNN, the Reactions Were Brutal

After last year’s presidential election, the media, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and pretty much the entire Democratic party reversed course on the coronavirus vaccine skepticism that had been on full display by them for several months leading up to Election Day.

Gone were most of the pre-election declarations about how the American people should be concerned and maybe a lot mistrustful about a vaccine that was allegedly being “rushed through by Trump because politics” (to paraphrase some of what was claimed). Gone was what many viewed as a deliberate, and to a certain degree successful, campaign to undermine the public’s confidence in the vaccine for political gain.

In its place, suddenly there was praise for the success of Operation Warp Speed and urgings for people to trust the science and take the vaccine in order to return the country as a whole to a sense of normalcy not seen much since the virus began wreaking havoc here last March.

Here we are over three months after the first official vaccine dose was given, and the Biden administration is again sending mixed signals about the vaccine, suggesting in so many words over the last few weeks that things may not be able to get back to normal as soon we would like it to even once the vast majority of the country has received the vaccine:

Biden’s announcements [last week] quickly raised expectations for when the nation could safely emerge from the pandemic, but even as he expressed optimism, Biden quickly tempered the outlook.

“I’ve been cautioned not to give an answer to that because we don’t know for sure,” Biden said, before saying his hope for a return to normal was sometime before “this time next year.”

Further muddying the waters has been Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who emerged last year as a media darling who could do no wrong. In a segment on CNN this morning, Fauci was asked by “New Day” anchor John Berman to explain the science behind the CDC’s latest recommendations for people who have received the vaccine, as well as their hesitancy to release travel guidance for vaccinated Americans.

Fauci more or less admitted on national TV that the medical experts making the decisions on CDC recommendations do not have the data nor “actual evidence” to back up their suggestions (bolded emphasis added):

“You know, that’s a very good question John, and the CDC is carefully heading in that direction. You know, when Dr. Walensky made the announcement a day or two ago about the fact that when you have a couple of people, two or three or more people in a family setting, both of whom are vaccinated, even if it’s someone from another — a friend, it doesn’t have to be a member of the family, that was the first in a multi-step process that they are going to be rolling out.

They’re being careful, understandably. They want to get science, they want to get data, and then when you don’t have the data and you don’t have the actual evidence, then you’ve got to make a judgment call. And I think that’s what you’re going to be seeing in the next weeks, you’re going to see little by little, more and more guidelines getting people to be more and more flexible.”

Watch Fauci’s full remarks below:

Fauci, asked “what’s the science” for denying vaccinated Americans a return to travel, can’t explain.

“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have the actual evidence, you’ve got to make a judgment call.” pic.twitter.com/lftvNzgA6J

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 10, 2021

So the American people are to now trust the “judgment calls” of the experts now because said experts are lacking the scientific rationale for the decisions they’re making on behalf of over 300 million people, according to Dr. Fauci.

The responses to the interview were brutal, including this one from my colleague Brandon Morse:

Them: “Believe the science!”

Us: “What’s the science?”

Them: “No idea, but do what we say anyway.” https://t.co/RpTnYjfaFC

— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) March 10, 2021

the best part of this interview is when the older guy with perfect hair told the younger guy with perfect hair that the CDC will soon tell regular people at home when they can get a haircut. https://t.co/YoMds9gR9Z

— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) March 10, 2021

We trusted Fauci’s judgement on lockdowns and we’re closing in on one year of fifteen days to slow the spread https://t.co/X0rVlxxdPC

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 10, 2021

All he has done for weeks is undermine the incentive structure for getting vaccinated — the measure that spells the end of the pandemic.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2021

This kind of attitude actually hurts the fight against vaccine hesitancy…. https://t.co/1w4Z03H1PP

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 10, 2021

“Judgment call.” Translated, I believe that means “wild-ass guess.” https://t.co/wkNPGOrgPr

— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) March 10, 2021

Calling Fauci’s answer a “wild-ass guess” is putting it mildly, to say the least.

I’m not here to argue the science one way or another. But considering how people have been told so many contradictory things from one day to the next for a year now about what they should and should not be doing – all supposedly based on science – hearing Fauci now say that the CDC is not operating based on science and the data when it comes to their recommendations (which are in and of themselves limiting) for vaccinated people is just going to create more confusion and sow more distrust for the experts they say people should rely on.

Fauci is emerging as one of this administration’s worst messengers on the vaccine, in my opinion. I’d suggest they start sending someone else out in front of the cameras, but considering the options – Biden, Harris? – that’s probably not a great idea, either. This country is desperate for a return to normalcy, and so far, the people who promised it in so many words are failing to deliver.