Biden gets Fauci'd
By: Alex Thompson, Theodoric Meyer, and Adam Cancryn (POLITICO)
What goes around, comes around. After praising Anthony Fauci as a demigod of science, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can only shift anyway the Fauci wind blows.
Dr. Anthony Fauci only plays politics for his own benefit. But that was apparent a long time ago. Now the political left must suffer the consequences of heaping praise on Fauci.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In its opening days, the Biden administration set a new rule to allow Dr. Anthony Fauci to make more mainstream media appearances, after being effectively muzzled during the waning months of the Trump administration.
"It's great to see Dr. Fauci on @Maddow — and anywhere else where he wants to speak his mind," White House chief of staff Ron Klain tweeted on Jan. 22.
The Biden administration is finding out the hard way, however, that the doctor does not really do White House talking points.
On Wednesday, Fauci went decidedly off-message on the question of vaccines for school teachers, leading to a muddle of messaging.
From a health standpoint, the issue is clear. The CDC's school reopening guidance issued last week says that "access to vaccination should not be considered a condition for reopening schools for in-person instruction."
The politics, however, are not so simple. Aware that many teachers unions oppose returning to the classroom without vaccinations, the Biden team has been dodging the question of whether they agree with the CDC.
Their go-to line has been to express support for a different provision in the guidance: that states should "consider giving high priority to teachers" during the vaccine rollout. President Joe Biden told CNN last night that teachers ought to be "on the list of preferred to get a vaccination."
Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated on "TODAY" this morning that "the president has said it, and we're all really clear, teachers should be a priority."
Host Savannah Guthrie pressed twice more —"I don't want to beat it to death, but I know there are teachers listening," she said — only for Harris to repeat, "We think they should be a priority."
Harris spokesperson Symone Sanders was also unwaveringly on-message this morning. "It is the administration's position, the president and vice president believe, that teachers should be prioritized for vaccinations," she told an exasperated Jon Berman on CNN, who said, "It's not a trick question and I feel like you guys have treated it like a trick question."
Enter Fauci, who went on "CBS This Morning" today and said what Biden and Harris have been unwilling to say.
"To make it a sine qua non that you don't open a school until every teacher is vaccinated I think is not workable," he said.
Hours later, the White House was singing Fauci's tune. Asked if teachers need to be vaccinated before they go back to school, press secretary Jen Psaki said "No, neither the president nor the vice president believe that it is a requirement."
It is the latest instance of Fauci straying from the Biden administration's preferred narrative on confronting the Covid-19 crisis.
The morning after Biden's inauguration, anonymous Biden sources told CNN that when it comes to vaccine distribution, "There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch." Another source said they would have to start from "square one."
But asked at the White House press briefing later that day, "Is the Biden administration starting from scratch with the vaccine distribution effort?," Fauci contradicted the anonymous Biden sources. "No, I mean, we certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution," the nation's premier infectious disease expert replied.
Republicans have tried to use the daylight between Fauci and the administration to try to create headaches for the White House.
"Psaki v Fauci," went one subject line from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office in January.
Today, the Republican National Committee blasted out an email to reporters highlighting how both Fauci and Biden's own CDC director have said "vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools."
To be clear, Fauci is simply giving the kind of unvarnished expert takes on the science that made him a Covid-era celebrity among Democrats — including Biden — and a major irritant for the Trump White House.
Now, funnily enough, some of the people who sympathize with Biden officials on the Fauci dynamic are former Trump administration officials who grappled repeatedly with these kinds of news cycles.
Said one Trump White House official who's worked with Fauci: "I don't think he intends to make his boss — whether it's the president or the HHS secretary — look bad but I sometimes think it's in his nature to pat himself on the back rather than give credit and deference to the policy that's been set."
Fauci's defenders argue that he is doing just what Biden has promised his administration would do: following the science.
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'Getting Fauci'd' could become part of the political lexicon like 'getting Bork'd'. Dr. Anthony Fauci is certainly an expert on creating confusion while patting himself on the back.
Dr. Fauci has created ZERO confusion. You can chalk that up to the former occupant of the White House.
If such a term is coined it would be in reference to an expert in a specific field getting pushed onto a tight rope by their political bosses where they have to carefully walk the line between speaking truth and carefully not saying anything that would contradict the political talking points their boss has manufactured to put a spin on facts.
His advice hats changed repeatedly
No, they didn't.
His advice has changed as more data about COVID has increased our understanding of it.
So, Fauci gave advice and made recommendations without a clear understanding of what was going on? That sounds pretty much like politics.
Considering his decades of scientific "expertise", he should have known to keep his trap shut until he knew ALL of the facts and data. Even after a year, he's still flip-flopping.
Initially, there weren't enough N95 masks for health care professionals.
Fauci was just trying to avoid mass-scale panic buying that would have negatively impacted health care workers and society as a whole.
I was one of those who purchased many more masks a year ago than I needed (I thought).
Am a long hauler and have had it for more than a year now.
Broke out with a new leg rash just yesterday.
My food is now delivered to the front porch.
They don't deliver beer or smokes which is annoying.
Ordered another 50 pack of N95 masks last night to help avoid transmitting it.
Anybody who doesn't take coronavirus seriously is a a fool.
Anybody who trashes Fauci and his knowledge is a fool.
I will get vaccinated as soon as it is available to me.
You do understand that we still don't know everything about COVID? Do you feel that Fauci, CDC, and WHO should still not be offering any advise whatsoever to any government or person???
Then you feel that the experts should STILL NOT BE advising us, since there are still unknowns about COVID?
Just found out that the health services don't vaccinate long haulers.
Still without water so am melting snow for drinking water.
First time in my life wishing for more snow.
Look, there are two choices.
Choice 1: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ignored scientific advice when they made policy statements that vaccinating teachers must be prioritized to open schools.
Choice 2: Anthony Fauci strayed from the scientific advice provided to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Which is it?
Nope. Neither of those options are scientific.
As new facts are discovered reality changes.
What new facts have been discovered over the last month?
The seeded article highlights that Biden and Harris stated a policy position that vaccinating teachers must be prioritized to open schools. Fauci publicly stated that policy was unnecessary.
Either Biden and Harris ignored the scientific advice for opening schools or Fauci decided to change the advice that had been provided.
Biden was Fauci'd.
It's not simply "Psaki v Fauci", It's the Biden administration vs the science. Dr Fauci is only repeating what the CDC has been forced to say twice - that it is safe for teachers to do what they have been paid for and go back to work!
That's nonsense.
They are WORKING now.
Tell that to high school students & their working parents in Chicago!
And San Francisco. But, it's not only major cities -- it's also thousands of blue state town school districts across the country that still don't "follow the science" and allow in-school public school education.
Medical and psychological data prove that teaching by ZOOM is a failed replacement for in-person education.
You mean like the notorious Fairfax County or Montgomery County in VA ?
I understand.
Tell that to high school students who now have trouble breathing.
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How stupid is it to not mask an infect others? Many in my neck of the woods are fools and don't mask.
It's very stupid. Tell me, what does that have to do with the CDC & Dr Fauci saying teachers are at low risk in schools?
So you deny the reality of covid-19 as well as anthropogenic global warming?
Am sick and tired of science deniers.
Ummmm he isn't denying science. The science says they can get back into classes and do their jobs. Now, who is denying science? Let me help you out here....it's some of the damned teachers who don't want to be far from the fridge
If you were referring to the teachers..........then I would agree.
The science says that it will get worse before getting better.
Ignorant rednecks can't be allowed to define science.
Reopening schools in the middle of a pandemic is just insane.
No, the science doesn't say that at all.
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That says a whole lot about you.
Neil Young had it right about Southern men, But knew many who didn't fit that profile .
Spent some time in Austin and made good friends
Teachers unions are an aggressive political force and they are masters at manipulating public political opinion. They lean on their credentials as educated educators to press their positions rather than support them with facts and compelling evidence.
You wouldn’t argue with the teacher, right?
The most offensive thing they do is to claim that whatever their position is, they are doing it “for the children.” When they want a raise, it’s “for the children.” When they want to get a vaccine first, it’s “for the children.” Nevermind the far more vulnerable populations out there. They need to go first. Don’t argue. Ignore those so-called “scientists.” They aren’t teachers.
“If you love your children and want them to go back to school, you need to vaccinate all the teachers. Don’t you love your children?”
It’s nauseating.
They raise a shit-ton of money to elect mostly Democratic politicians to do their biddings. You can see that the White House was already prepared to obey.
What a load of bullshit.
Please defend your accusation with facts.
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"Give teachers priority" is not the same as "every teacher being vaccinated". The disagreement between the messages is manufactured.
Nope. You either ignore a deadly virus or you don't. It's that simple.
I mask wherever I go these days.
There are teachers refusing the vaccine. There are teachers who have medical reasons not to have the vaccine. Shall we suspend school forever waiting for teachers who refuse to vaccinate, or can't vaccinate?
Also, the vaccine doesn't entirely prevent transmission. Data suggests that it will reduce transmission, but that is not confirmed, and confirmation will be difficult.
Fire all teachers who refuse. This pandemic is now rampant and out of control.
And replace them, how?
Anyway, you're missing the point. This article is trying to play up a proposed division between Fauci and the Biden administration, while simultaneously accusing Fauci of playing politics. Fauci is merely saying that not every teacher needs to be vaccinated, according to the CDC, for schools to reopen. He is not saying that teachers should not be vaccinated. Biden is saying that vaccinating teachers is a priority. They are hardly at loggerheads here. And the accusation that Fauci is both playing politics and opposing his boss is ludicrously self-contradictory.
I am positive that will go over like a lead balloon with the teachers unions
Screw any teacher who doesn't do their best to protect their students from anything and everything, That's the way it worked when I was a kid.
Again, you're missing the point of my original comment.
But you are aware that it takes a while to educate a teacher, yes?
Used to teach kids myself. Tough job. Takes awhile to figure them out.
In an article published Jan. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, three researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found “little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission” of the coronavirus. Data from reopened classrooms don’t show the rapid spread that has been observed in congregate living facilities and high-density work sites.
The CDC researchers looked at more than 90,000 students in 11 North Carolina districts and found that only 32 students and staff members were infected in school. In the same period, 773 got infected outside school.
Flip-flop, Flip-flop...
"Follow the science." That was Joe Biden’s promise to the American people—until Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers disagreed.