Lessons From Pandemic: Public Trust Easily Lost

Since the beginning of the pandemic, disciples of Dr. Anthony Fauci demanded adherence to science.    Anyone who challenged the octogenarian medical advisor was labeled a science denier. That shielded Dr. Fauci and his partners at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from legitimate professional criticism.

With the protection of the legacy media, Dr. Fauci and the CDC pushed for isolating an entire country and in the process shut down the world's biggest economy.  They issued calls for mask and vaccination mandates.  They lectured Americans on how many family members could attend a Christmas gathering.

In the beginning,  Americans generally heeded the health warnings. They were frightened by dire news reporting, often lacking context, about the virus.  The New York Times and other newspapers carried updated COVID death and case counts on the front pages. Fear was a weapon for compliance.

When miracle vaccines were introduced at the end of 2020, there appeared a light at the end of pandemic tunnel. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris evolved from suggesting the vaccines were rushed into production to becoming its biggest cheerleaders. Vaccines would halt the pandemic.

Administration officials, including the president, donned masks on every occasion, even wearing one as they walked  to the podium in a nearly empty room.  They were following the science.  Masks work to protect the wearer from spreading or contracting the contagious virus. No one questioned the science.

Just when there appeared to be a rising optimism for a return to normal, President Biden unleashed executive orders to require vaccinations for Americans in businesses, government, the military and health care workers.  The federal government usurped responsibility for Americans' health decisions,.

This appeared to many legal scholars to be unConstitutional, a breach of freedom.  Court cases were filed by a growing number of states. Americans were divided into two camps: those who believed it was necessary to force Americans to get the jab versus those who wanted to make their own choice.

By mid-year in 2021, more Americans were wearying of the never ending mandates.  They wanted to exercise their right of freedom from authoritarian rules.  States began lifting mask mandates, opening schools, liberating citizens from Washington's vaccination obsession and resuming normal life.

Clearly,  politics not science is carrying the day. Never was it more clear when Democrat states New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts and California announced last week they are revising or dropping mask mandates.  Mandates are deeply unpopular with voters.

Ironically, these moves come at a time when the spread of COVID remains rampant.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans are getting infected every day.  More than 3,000 are dying. In January, COVID killed more Americans than the flu has in three years.  There were 55,000 deaths, reports the CDC.

The seven-day fatality average in January was the highest point it has been since last winter before vaccines were widely available. Omicron is expected to push the U.S. total deaths past the one million mark, according to Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at University of California-Irvine.

So has the science of masks and vaccinations changed?  Mask policies are the victim of an admission by the CDC that a cloth mask is virtually useless against the spread of COVID.  And there have been thousands and thousands of so-called breakthrough cases of the fully vaccinated.

This month the CDC released a report showing that the effectiveness of the booster shot for fully vaccinated individuals begins to wane just four months after the jab, adding to public skepticism.  In another surprising move, the FDA postponed its decision on a Pfizer vaccine for children four and under.  

These are signs of a broad concession that vaccines are not the Holy Grail scientists once thought they were.  The are better than no protection against COVID, especially for high risk Americans, but the vaccines do not last as long as the CDC and Dr. Fauci claimed at one time.

As a result, there has been a near total collapse of faith in the government, the CDC and Dr. Fauci in particular, when it comes to the pandemic.  A NewsNationaPoll, conducted by Decision Desk HQ, found that a meager 15.5% trust the president and only 31% trust Dr. Fauci.

Other polls may show higher trust levels, but the research confirms Americans are losing faith in public health officials, particularly those in Washington.  An ABC News survey found that 43% of Americans do not trust the CDC.  Faith in Mr. Biden on the Coronavirus skidded to 37% in January.

The new media fared even worse.  One poll found that only one-in-ten Americans trust the information churned out by the news media on the pandemic.  At the same time, fully two-thirds of Americans trust the advice of their primary care provider on COVID.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll reflects the growing resentment of Americans with continuing restrictions.  In the survey, 75% of Americans expressed frustration and fatigue over the current state of the COVID pandemic. Fully 77% believe it is inevitable most people will be infected.

Some Democrat and Republican governors, eyeing upcoming midterms, are feeling the heat. That explains the about face on mask mandates and the softening of vaccine mandates.  Despite the administration mandates, 63.6% of Americans are fully vaccinated as of January. 

Politics is trumping science.  As the pandemic has stretched through the months, the line between science and politics has been blurred. That partly explains the erosion of public trust.  However, in a pandemic, trust in government and in one's fellow citizens is key to successful communications.

Dr. Fauci and the CDC were cast in the dominant role of the disseminating information on the virus.  It was incumbent on those speaking for the administration to be accurate, transparent, and truthful. When decisions are communicated, Americans expect facts to support the health directive. 

Unfortunately, the keepers of the information fell into a pattern of vacillating between contradictory positions, often igniting the flames of disinformation.  Worst of all, instead of admitting mistakes or just acknowledging the answers were elusive, Washington's health officials were unrepentant. 

Meanwhile, scientists, epidemiologists and health experts who disagreed with the prevailing advice from Dr. Fauci and the CDC were censored.  They were booted off social media.  Their studies were scrubbed from scientific websites  Despite their credentials, they were not allowed to have a dissenting opinion.

The censorship was conducted with the full-throated backing of Dr. Fauci, the CDC and the administration.  The move backfired.  When you end debate on a novel virus and insist on only one version of science, public mistrust deepens.  Americans are smarter than government officials believe.  

Now even Dr. Fauci has joined the billowing chorus of health officials in predicting the "full blown" pandemic could be ending soon.  He admitted that more health decisions will "increasingly be made at the local level rather than centrally" mandated.  

Then the face of the pandemic did the unthinkable by adding: "There will also be more people making their own decision on how they want to deal with the virus." Hate to burst his self-inflated ego but many Americans have been doing this since the winter of 2020 passed.

The inimitable doctor and the CDC should take stock of their communications missteps.  The lesson is trust is easily lost if Americans believe they are not getting the entire story.  Every contradictory directive, unexplained advisory and inflexible restriction chips away at public trust.

Communications also should be tailored to specific audiences.  At the start of the pandemic, more information should have been directed at the most vulnerable: the elderly, immune compromised and those with comorbidities.  Instead, the government aimed its information at the general public.

Defenders of Dr. Fauci and the CDC will retort: the COVID virus was an epidemiological mystery that required more than a year to unravel. Fair enough.  But it behoved officials to admit they didn't have all the answers. Temper advice with a caution that it is subject to change as more facts are known.

In a free society, health officials will fail or succeed in dealing with a pandemic by mobilizing public trust in the government and among its citizens.  A thorough airing of the contrarian views from health experts is healthy. Showing trust in citizens to do the right thing is crucial. 

Those are valuable lessons for health authorities to remember during the next pandemic.

Dr. Fauci: The Doc Who Couldn't Shoot Straight

He has been praised as a "national treasure." He wears the title of America's doctor.  His popularity ranks highest among government figures, including the president. His words carry more weight than any global health expert. However, most Americans know little about the grandfatherly Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Fauci has been anointed the nation's "top infectious disease expert" by an adoring media. He is a Presidential Medal of Honor recipient and one of the most cited living researchers, according to Google. He holds the American Association of Immunologist Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Fauci earned his medical degree from Cornell in 1966.  He started his career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1968.  In 1984, he ascended to head the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services.

That means Dr. Fauci is a 52-year career federal government employee.  That is not a knock on the doctor, just a fact.  He is an immunologist, a speciality that treats health issues brought on by immune system problems.  Epidemiologists focus on epidemics and other health-related diseases. 

Dr. Fauci, despite his spry demeanor, is 80-years old.  He earns more than the president. He is the government's top paid official with an annual salary of $417,608 in 2019.  The president makes $400,000. Federal executive-level employees salaries are generally capped at $172,500.

For all his credentials, Dr. Fauci has been less than a straight shooter with the American public on the Coronavirus. The Brooklyn native has admitted publicly withholding information from Americans, moving the goalposts on herd immunity and obfuscating when the situation called for clarity.

His Coronavirus public advice began last year on January 21, when he told Americans they did not need to worry about the virus coming to our shores.  Less than a month later on February 8, America's COVID expert down-played the danger of the virus, labeling the chances of infection as very small.

The same month on the 29th, Dr. Fauci appeared on the Today Show and assured American there was "no need" to change their behavior as the pandemic spread.  His streak continued on March 9 when he recommended taking a cruise, telling Forbes Magazine if "you're healthy, cruise ships are safe."

For Fauci-defenders, this may sound like Monday Morning Quarterbacking.  Very little was known about the virus and the doctor was basing his counsel on the best available data, his protectors argue.  But that's the point.  There was virtually no scientific data or research on the novel COVID 19.  

Didn't Dr. Fauci have a responsibility as the COVID Czar to caution Americans that his advice was predicated on precious little scientific evidence?  No political figure could have escaped media scorn for treating public health pronouncements so callously.  Exactness matters during widespread panic. 

However, it is not only sacrilegious to critique Dr. Fauci but social media platforms will censor you for questioning any of his Coronavirus health advisories.  No fair person can defend his reluctance to admit publicly he was wrong or that scientists were befuddled, especially early in the pandemic.  

Perhaps, his most ignominious pronouncement came in March on the television show "60 Minutes" when he uttered the following:

"Right now, in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks," he said.  "There no reason to be walking around with a mask."  He went on to reiterate that masks should largely be reserved for health care providers.  

In April, Dr. Fauci pivoted, advising Americans to don masks.  His change of direction sounded contradictory to average Americans.  In his defense, the actual scientific evidence about the protection offered by cloth masks for COVID was nonexistent.  But he obviously believed masks were needed.

Months later on July 16, Dr. Fauci in an interview with CBS News defended his earlier decision, surprisingly admitting he doesn't regret his counsel against wearing masks.  His defense exposed his lack of faith in the intelligence of Americans.  This elitist approach continued throughout the pandemic.  

"I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct.  We were told in our task force meeting that we had a serious problem with lack of PPE's (Personal Protective Equipment) and masks for health providers who were putting themselves in harm's way every day to take care of sick people," he told news anchor Norah O'Donnell.

A fair interpretation of his remarks clearly shows Dr. Fauci purposefully avoided telling people to wear masks because he feared Americans would run out and purchase the products making it more difficult for health workers to obtain masks.  Why not just say that? Speak the truth.  

A few scientists had the temerity to suggest perhaps Dr. Fauci should have been more forthcoming, including UC San Francisco epidemiologist George Rutherford.  He chided the doctor's concern for nuanced messaging when he should have been warning Americans to don masks.

"We should have told people to wear cloth masks right off the bat," he said.  Chances are you have never read this is your legacy media.  

An example of Dr. Fauci's  penchant for moving the goalposts arose during the pandemic when he cited an estimate of 60-to-70 estimate of herd immunity as the measurement desired for the country returning to "normal."  Then this March, he shifted to 70-to-75%. Days later the estimate flipped to 75-to-80%.

In a telephone interview. Dr. Fauci acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been shifting the goalposts.  He said it was partly based on new science and "partly on his gut feeling" that the country is finally ready to have access to what he really believes is the ideal herd immunity figure.  

The immunologist clarified that he hesitated to publicly raise his herd estimate because Americans seemed reluctant about getting vaccinated.  Wide adoption of vaccines were required in order for the country to achieve herd immunity.  How does fudging on herd immunity encourage vaccinations?

Herd immunity may never be obtained, if national polling can be believed.  A Gallup survey in December found 42% of Americans do not want to be vaccinated. As of March 25, just 13.8% of Americans were fully vaccinated, making herd immunity a faint possibility by end of year. 

In the latest epidemiological dust-up, Sen. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist, challenged some of Dr. Fauci's assertions about masks and vaccine immunity during a Senate Committee hearing on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions recently.  

The Kentucky senator bore in on Dr. Fauci's insistence that those fully vaccinated must continue to wear masks.  Paul cited statistics that out of nearly 30 million Americans vaccinated, there were only five confirmed cases of re-infection.  He demanded to know what was the science behind the mask mandate.

Dr. Fauci answered the masks were "protective."  Paul pressed for scientific studies showing that those vaccinated needed to continue to wear masks.  Dr. Fauci could produce no science to prove masks should be worn after vaccination. 

Before the hearing, Dr. Fauci was photographed wearing two masks. He told the media two masks were better than one for protection. Based on what scientific evidence?  Name a study?   The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has made no such public recommendation.

If two masks are better, what about three or four? Show us the science.

Asked how long Americans needed to mask up, Dr. Fauci has vacillated.  In interviews he predicted a return to normality by summer, an indication masks might not be required.  Now he is equivocating.  His advice in an interview on CNN on February 21 when asked if masks would be required in 2022:

"You know, I think it is possible that that's the case, and again, it really depends on what you mean by normality," he answered. Wearing a mask is not normal for Americans.  Normality, for most, is freedom of movement, association and no masks.  That was life pre-pandemic.  

As with so many of his pronouncements, this just adds to people's confusion.  Worse, it erodes public confidence in health advice, making Americans leery about following his directives.  No surprise that a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found trust in Dr. Fauci and the CDC is rapidly declining.

It begs the question: When you demand that people follow science, whose science should they embrace? Throughout the pandemic, some of the world's brightest and best epidemiologists have presented findings shining new light on the virus thus rendering past advice and knowledge obsolete.  

In these cases, who is right?  Who decides the science?  

Scientists need to admit when new evidence contradicts their previous advice and fully explain it to the public.  No one expects scientists to be 100% right 100% of the time.  Just own up to the obvious. That will increase credibility instead of corroding it in the eyes of the public.  

For those ready to crucify anyone who critiques Dr. Fauci, let's add this disclaimer.  He had the weight of a novel Coronavirus on his shoulders and did his very best to steer the country through the pandemic safely.  Let's stipulate no one could have done it better, certainly not this writer.

That still does not absolve Dr. Fauci of his responsibility to speak plainly to the American public.  Every crisis demands transparency and the truth, even if it unsettles people.  Americans are supportive when they believe they are getting straight answers.  You shouldn't treat Americans as nincompoops.

When you do that, you should not be surprised when Americans either ignore or give less credence to your health mandates.