The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is retiring later this year, admitted that "certain aspects" of the United States government's COVID-19 pandemic response were "botched."
The health official said that this included the back-and-forth of authorities on masking recommendations and the slow rollout of rapid testing across the country. During an interview that aired on Thursday, Fauci said, "They did not get the commercial involvement in the tests quickly."
'Botched' Aspects of COVID-19 Response
The NIAID director argued that they did not know that masks worked outside of the hospital setting. Fauci added that there was supposedly a shortage of good masks for the people who were responsible for taking care of individuals.
The remarks come as public health officials have reversed course on some policies and Fauci said that closing down schools at the beginning of the pandemic may have been worth it despite the ensuing learning loss for children, as per Fox News.
The health official said there was a misunderstanding about the situation and that since children do not get as severe disease as adults, there were still roughly 1,400 children lost to the infection. Fauci noted that while there were deleterious consequences for keeping kids out of school, their safety was also important.
Last month, a Department of Education study was published that found reading scores in children saw their largest decrease in three decades during the pandemic, while math scores saw their first decrease ever.
According to the New York Post, Fauci also blamed the "divisiveness" of social media platforms that allegedly warped his guidance during the pandemic into a confusing and controversial statement.
Health Crisis Guidance
The health official claimed that in a society where people attack a person's statements, the confusion builds up, especially when you're dealing with an evolving outbreak. Fauci also justified previous COVID-19 guidance, including the enforcement of lockdowns, masking, and vaccination due to hospitals being overrun with patients.
Fauci said that sometimes there needs to be "draconian things" implemented despite having collateral negative consequences. He added that there has to be a balance in dealing with an infectious outbreak such as the coronavirus.
The remarks come as the health official said that he was dedicated to "keeping a completely open mind" about how the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019. However, he said that he still wishes that he had more information to go on from the Chinese government regarding the first stages of the health crisis.
There are many scientists and conspiracy theorists who have been eager to find clear answers to the origins of the Sars-CoV-2 virus. However, no satisfactory nail-in-the-coffin evidence is pointing to one single, bulletproof explanation for where the health crisis started.
Some believe the virus emerged naturally in a bat or some other animal host in the wild, hopping from creature to creature and later to humans. There are those who also argue that it may have been leaked from a laboratory, an also possible, albeit unlikely, theory, Insider reported.
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