Fauci: Lack of Candor, Facts Over Last Year ‘Likely’ Cost Lives

Friday on CNN’s “New Day,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said he believed the lack of candor and facts over the last year “likely” led to the loss of lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci also called into question the “divisiveness” and politicization of wearing masks as a means to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“[W]hat we’ve had, John — there’s no secret — we’ve had a lot of divisiveness, facts that were very, very clear that were questioned,” Fauci explained why it was important for President Joe Biden to emphasize the importance of trusting health officials. “People were not trusting what health officials were saying. There was great divisiveness. Masking became a political issue. So, what the president was saying, right from the get-go, you know, let’s reset this. Let’s everybody get on the same page, trust each other; let the science speak. The president made the analogy of a war. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the numbers, over 400,000 people dead. That’s quite comparable to World War II. I mean, that’s the reason why we’ve really got to restore trust and restore a unified approach.”

“Did the lack of candor, did the lack of facts in some cases over the last year cost lives?” host John Berman asked.

“You know, it very likely did,” Fauci replied. “You know, I don’t want that, John, to be a soundbite, but I think if you just look at that, you can see that when you’re starting to go down paths that are not based on any science at all — and we’ve been there before. I don’t want to rehash it. That is not helpful at all. And particularly when you’re in the situation of almost being in a crisis with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths that we have, when you start talking about things that make no sense medically and no sense scientifically, that clearly is not helpful.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent