Fauci’s Sin Of Hubris
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/anthony-fauci-unmasks-himself-f432985b
Forty-five years ago, the “running buddies” (Marc Lippman, Allen Lichter, Bob Young, and me) were on the staff of the National Cancer Institute and would run for about six miles during the lunch hour in lieu of eating. We were in training to run the Marine Corps Marathon in November of 1981.
During a weekend training run on the C and O Canal Towpath along the Potomac River, we saw a small motorcycle ahead with a rifle tucked in behind the rider. We knew someone prominent was ahead of us on the tow path. Surprisingly, the motorcyclist allowed us through and soon we were running alongside Vice President George H. W. Bush. He was kind enough to chat with us on the run while surrounded by Secret Service agents. Thus, like Ronald Reagan and Dan Quayle, I ran with 41.
On another run, this time back at the NIH’s Bethesda campus midweek, we ran with a then prominent branch chief named Tony Fauci. He would gain even more prominence shortly thereafter when he at first battled against, and then joined forces with, Act-Up, the AIDS activist group to get new treatments to those infected with HIV. Fauci was famous then, but it was only a glimpse at what was to come during Covid.
With the threat of a pandemic bearing down on the United States, Dr. Fauci became the face and voice of the government’s response to the virus. It was he who suggested the six-foot distancing. It was he who suggested the masking. It was he who suggested that schools be closed. It was he who assured us that this plague had not escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and that NIH grant funds were not used to develop gain-of-function versions of the virus that then escaped to plague the world.
In the earliest days of the pandemic, there was a brisk counter movement to the suggestions of Dr. Fauci that was embodied in the Great Barrington Declaration of October 2020 which advocated ceasing forced lockdowns, focusing the government’s protection efforts on the most vulnerable (e.g., elderly), and resuming normal activities (i.e., school) for the young and well.
Dr. Fauci resented those advocating against his suggestions. They in turn vilified him. In retrospect now, I think it is safe to say, that the Great Barrington group of epidemiologists got far more right than the infectious disease expert, Dr. Fauci, did.
All of this came screaming back at the country like a bad dream this week when Fauci, now prevented from being prosecuted for his government decisions prior to January 19, 2025, by a pardon from President Biden, was called to testify before Senator Rand Paul’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Fauci refused to answer a single question invoking his Fifth Amendment rights. A few Republican senators went ballistic. Democrats came to Fauci’s defense which exemplifies the problem. The country’s response to Covid should never have been politicized and a reasoned review of who was right and who was wrong could go a long way to preparing the country for the next pandemic, should one occur.
The new cause of distress for Dr. Fauci is the publication of over 1000 pages of his diaries that he foolishly kept on government servers. HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. gave the text to Senator Paul.
To me the big revelations of the diaries were that Fauci did have doubt as to the origin of the virus despite his public assurances that it did not emanate from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In fact, no one knows. While he assured the country it was a naturally-occurring species jump, he could never be sure it did not emanate from the Wuhan lab, even to this day. But more troubling is the preening and self-infatuation with his fame and his access to the rich and famous like Barbara Streisand and Julia Roberts. It was clear from his diary entries that he enjoyed being famous, enjoyed his face being on the television screen, and that he had become enamored of his image. This is very dangerous and, in his case, may well have led to his being duplicitous. It looks like he never did really square with the American people and tell them what they had a right to know about Covid—what he knew and what he did not know.
I have to confess to having almost fallen into a similar trap. There was a time in the late 1990’s when I was the face of MD Anderson on a host of TV news shows about clinical trials and the 25th anniversary of the War on Cancer. My picture was in lay publication articles about the same subjects. I almost made the mistake of thinking that I mattered to the MD Anderson image. Fortunately, this did not last and I went back to being an administrator after a very brief stint as a TV spokesman. I also had the advantage of rowdy faculty more than willing to put me in my place. God bless them!
I relate my experience only because it could have sucked me in like it did Fauci. If it had, I am not sure what I would have done when the president of MD Anderson got caught up in two business scandals and I had to speak to those issues in the press. That was very humbling. It negated any hubris that might have been arising in me while on NBC, CNN, and PBS.
Dr. Fauci loved the limelight and he never wanted to give it up. While in it, he may have made some really terrible decisions and rather than correct them, he doubled down insisting only he knew what the United States needed to do in response to the Covid pandemic. And, while it may be true that he, himself, could not close schools or mandate masks, the country looked to him for advice and the advice he gave was poor even as it was implemented across the country. Kids who were in school then are still paying the price of having fallen behind while being out of the classroom.
Now, President Trump and the GOP senators want Fauci’s head and he may have no friends to defend him. His hubris got out of control and now the gods of Olympus may want their revenge on an 85-year-old retiree.
Tony Fauci did some great things while serving the American people at the NIH particularly during the initial AIDS crisis. During Covid, he made some poor calls and his diary reveals he got carried away with himself. It should come as no surprise that some in the GOP want an accounting for his decisions. Maybe all of America does, too.
I think the lessons are:
Never believe your own PR.
Just because your face is on television doesn’t mean you really matter.
And:
Never keep a personal diary on a government server.
