Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has flip-flopped on a variety of issues throughout the Chinese coronavirus — from masking to vaccine mandates — told the Financial Times that the United States is heading out of the “full blown” phase of the pandemic.
President Biden’s chief medical adviser, who has long touted mandates, masks, and lockdowns, told the outlet that the U.S. is heading out of the “full blown” pandemic, even though he suggested during a January appearance at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda conference that the world was still in the first of four stages of the pandemic.
“As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated,” he told the Financial Times, adding that there will “also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus” — freedoms Republicans have long called for.
“I hope we are looking at a time when we have enough people vaccinated and enough people with protection from previous infection that the COVID restrictions will soon be a thing of the past,” he said.
While he expressed hope that restrictions would end “soon,” he did not provide a date, suggesting that it will happen this year. Already, however, blue state leaders are suddenly changing their positions, announcing the end of mask mandates in schools. New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware governors made that announcement this week alone.
The news comes as Republican leaders, many of whom have championed liberty throughout the pandemic, note that “science” is not what is driving leftists to lift restrictions.
“Just understand this. The science didn’t change. The medical science didn’t change. The political science changed,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said of blue state leaders lifting certain restrictions, making the remarks during a press conference on Tuesday.
“They feel the heat. They know that voters have been tired of perpetual lockdown policies. They know that they have basically offered no offramp and they know that they’re fixing to be whooped at the polls, so that’s causing the epiphany,” he said, noting that the “actual science” backed up Florida’s position from the beginning.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) articulated a similar view during a brief speech on the Senate floor Wednesday.
“Sometimes I hear the phrase, the science changed. The science hasn’t changed,” he said. “What’s changed is that there’s an election coming and Democrats have seen the polling on this question.”