With all due respect, this article is far too polite. The Fauci era has been a catastrophe in terms of the loss of public faith in our once revered institutions, and he personally is due the vast majority of the blame.
(Not to mention the question of criminal culpability with respect to "gain of function" research, and the suppression of early preventative therapies.)
No one should “rule over” federal research funding for as long as Dr Fauci has. It creates bias, possible conflict of interest and stagnation of development and progress. I believe Dr Fauci was more interested in being a media darling during the pandemic than driving rapid quality research. That is his legacy.
Many thanks, Dr. Makary. You are a surgeon and many have discounted your views due to your training but one of the most important lessons of the last three years has been the arrogance and close-mindedness of "experts". I am a pediatric pulmonologist, now retired, but I have a basic knowledge of virology and immunology. I read widely now that I am retired. I totally agree with Dr. Markary that censorship, aided and abetted by our "medical establishment", has been a huge error. Fauci seems to have seriously misunderstood SCIENCE. He has identified with it but seems to have forgotten that scientific progress requires questioning of hypotheses, creating counter-intuitive solutions and challenging convention. I suspect that he himself was too personally and professionally invested in "gain of function research", which would be of great interest in a perfect world where safety could be guaranteed.
Bureaucratic resistance, lethargy and opposition to new ideas are all important targets for change. Operation Warp Speed remains an astonishing example of how bureaucratic hurdles can be overcome if and when there is an urgency and a will to accomplish a goal. There needs to be a serious critical review of the NIH, CDC and FDA.
Thanks as well for not jumping on the ad hominem bandwagon against Dr. Fauci. I believe that his accomplishments, though considerable over decades, will be forever tarnished. The GOP needs to move on from Fauci after summarizing his failings and work on quality improvement with a new roster of a new generation.
I am reading Scott Atlas's book, A Plague Upon Our House, which provides a fascinating perspective on Fauci, Birx and the medical establishment which directed our government policy from the beginning. Fauci and Birx were NOT well read and did not show interest in what dissenting voices, including Atlas, were writing. It is another angle on why we should never trust a narrow group of so-called experts again.
All “public health” entities need to be dismantled starting with the Feds. They’re hopelessly corrupt & contribute zero to society. In fact they do harm. Too many are dead or injured for life bc of these self-annointed “experts.” They hold dictatorial sway but ALL are Emperors with No Clothes. Only a few deluded people follow their dictates/advice. Zero credibility.
The CDC and Fauci have proven the inherent incompetence and corruption of lifer bureaucrats and why they cannot be trusted with the greater good. My personal opinion is that people go into government to ESCAPE accountability.
We can no longer deceive ourselves that federal agencies operate with ethics or with the intention of promoting the greater goods of society.
After 50 years in public health, Fauci responded to the pandemic like he was "brand new"... no playbook... no RCTs... I remember being bewildered early on by the fact that the CDC data on influenza outbreaks and management is so scattershot... a whipsaw lurching from one policy and pronouncement to another...
as if a respiratory virus pandemic was something they had never seen before. I have to think that he responded with such authoritarian control because he wanted to try to cover his tracks
and maybe... just maybe, he felt some guilt for what he has done (I doubt the latter, but that would be getting into my opinion of his personality).
If you read Scott Atlas’s book you discover that Fauci, Birxx, and Redfield were not up to date on any research being done by other countries and private institutions. The recommendations made by Atlas based on research were dismissed and never carried out. It should be noted that there were no epidemiologists on the covid task force.
Thanks Marty. Always appreciate your frank and to the point writing. Look forward to more. Also have appreciated your participation with other doctors over the last 3 years on supporting the need for real science in medicine.
"window into a bureaucracy that has underperformed for decades" It took Elon Musk to develop rockets and engines that were built well and in the process shamed the moribund NASA and also the DoD whose rocket engine program was stalled forever.
The CDC seems to imagine and research an army of guns leaping out of bushes to kill people. Have they bothered to see the SSRIs or other dope that many of the gun users were on when they used a gun to kill?
The NIH spends fortunes yet can't develop a data dictionary to rationalize hospital reporting standards nor establish reporting rules nor develop data bases that allow deep learning. Where are the standards for electronic health records to ensure interoperability? They claim they don't have the authority yet can recommend against HCQ and IVM and those recommendations become treated as law by hospitals, doctors and pharmacists.
Absolutely accurate. That M.D.s, MD/PhDs and. PhDs whose funding depended on him would not speak up cannot be understated. This was too much power, too much money controlled by one individual for far too long. He destroyed his own legacy IMHO. . Oh and lying to Congress about GOF research/EcoHealth Alliance funding having found a work around on the 2014 moratorium on that type of work-straight up criminal. Are you judged on the best work you ever did in your career, your worst work or simply The Last Thing? I think the latter two. The entire structure of NIH, NIAID, CDC, FDA needs to be broken up.
Fauci's punishment should be him watching his legacy fall from grace EVEN from the rabid MSM fans. The feckless political cum journalists may even come around when they see blood in the water. Nah, who am I kidding. But medical doctors need to shoulder the blame. Unlike those who've published here, too many were willing to toe the line. Too many were silent. I understand the livelihood angle, but healthy young people are still being forced to take vaccines that will do more harm than good.
Also, we need to COMPLETELY dismantle the NIH, CDC, FDA and pharma's entanglement. What happened to the people who pulled vaccines when there were 1 in 100K adverse events? Where have they gone?
Bravo for this set of comments from Marty. Who could not agree with every word, comma, period, dash, and semi-colon found therein? What really keeps me awake at night now is the question of who will be the next person occupying Fauci's former office. A full-court press search committee needs to be formed and such a posse cannot be allowed to make the "top pick" based on any silly concepts that come from the crazy world of political correctness. And, God help us, hopefully we will not see as the new person some wet-behind-the-ears beginner given this job at NIAID merely because she/he "is a nice person who looks very promising moving forward". We are, as a country, now playing with fire if there continues to be willful ignorance regarding the miserable track records and leadership of various Federal agencies whose actions do seriously impact the ongoing process of public health optimization --- viz. FDA, CDC, and NIH.
I may not be remembering the timeline correctly but I think they were already talking about making vaccines (may not have been give the Warp Speed name yet ) and they still hadn’t come out publicly on whether it was airborne or surface transmitted or both. Just my opinion but that would have been the first thing I think they should have gotten straight.
Also all the public health leaders (Fauci, Walensky, etc) developed an ultra specific aphasia that made it impossible for them to saw the words “natural immunity”. Furthermore they were afflicted with an auditory / speech processing disorder because whenever someone asked them about natural immunity they demonstrated a near Tourette’s response of “Get vaccinated “.
Lastly, I know how hard it can be to spend billions of dollars, I saw “Brewster’s Millions” with Richard Pryor. But after what is it 40-50 something years I would think that Fauci would have been better at spending other people’s money.
Marty, You are far, far too kind. The one essential in public health is you never lie. Fauci started out by lying about masks -- he knew that advocating them was a lie. And the First Lie was the Worst Lie. Since gullible people sucked that up ('look, Ma...we're doing something") all the following lies (anti-social distancing, quarantines of healthy people, you name it) were also able to be propagated.
I have never seen more people advocate for studies of masking but not do them. You, Vinay -- you have hundreds of RCTs going, but no one will take one on for masking? Yet everyone whines about why someone else hasn't done one? I fail to understand this. Perhaps you can explain it to me? I am certain we could come up with reasoned funding for it -- why will no one do it?
In any case (and I have sat on committees with Tony) the lying shifted my assessment from incompetent to non-forgivable...as I noted above, the one unforgivable sin in public health. There is much more to be fixed than tweaking on NIH research scheduling.
With all due respect, this article is far too polite. The Fauci era has been a catastrophe in terms of the loss of public faith in our once revered institutions, and he personally is due the vast majority of the blame.
(Not to mention the question of criminal culpability with respect to "gain of function" research, and the suppression of early preventative therapies.)
No one should “rule over” federal research funding for as long as Dr Fauci has. It creates bias, possible conflict of interest and stagnation of development and progress. I believe Dr Fauci was more interested in being a media darling during the pandemic than driving rapid quality research. That is his legacy.
Many thanks, Dr. Makary. You are a surgeon and many have discounted your views due to your training but one of the most important lessons of the last three years has been the arrogance and close-mindedness of "experts". I am a pediatric pulmonologist, now retired, but I have a basic knowledge of virology and immunology. I read widely now that I am retired. I totally agree with Dr. Markary that censorship, aided and abetted by our "medical establishment", has been a huge error. Fauci seems to have seriously misunderstood SCIENCE. He has identified with it but seems to have forgotten that scientific progress requires questioning of hypotheses, creating counter-intuitive solutions and challenging convention. I suspect that he himself was too personally and professionally invested in "gain of function research", which would be of great interest in a perfect world where safety could be guaranteed.
Bureaucratic resistance, lethargy and opposition to new ideas are all important targets for change. Operation Warp Speed remains an astonishing example of how bureaucratic hurdles can be overcome if and when there is an urgency and a will to accomplish a goal. There needs to be a serious critical review of the NIH, CDC and FDA.
Thanks as well for not jumping on the ad hominem bandwagon against Dr. Fauci. I believe that his accomplishments, though considerable over decades, will be forever tarnished. The GOP needs to move on from Fauci after summarizing his failings and work on quality improvement with a new roster of a new generation.
I am reading Scott Atlas's book, A Plague Upon Our House, which provides a fascinating perspective on Fauci, Birx and the medical establishment which directed our government policy from the beginning. Fauci and Birx were NOT well read and did not show interest in what dissenting voices, including Atlas, were writing. It is another angle on why we should never trust a narrow group of so-called experts again.
All “public health” entities need to be dismantled starting with the Feds. They’re hopelessly corrupt & contribute zero to society. In fact they do harm. Too many are dead or injured for life bc of these self-annointed “experts.” They hold dictatorial sway but ALL are Emperors with No Clothes. Only a few deluded people follow their dictates/advice. Zero credibility.
The CDC and Fauci have proven the inherent incompetence and corruption of lifer bureaucrats and why they cannot be trusted with the greater good. My personal opinion is that people go into government to ESCAPE accountability.
We can no longer deceive ourselves that federal agencies operate with ethics or with the intention of promoting the greater goods of society.
After 50 years in public health, Fauci responded to the pandemic like he was "brand new"... no playbook... no RCTs... I remember being bewildered early on by the fact that the CDC data on influenza outbreaks and management is so scattershot... a whipsaw lurching from one policy and pronouncement to another...
as if a respiratory virus pandemic was something they had never seen before. I have to think that he responded with such authoritarian control because he wanted to try to cover his tracks
and maybe... just maybe, he felt some guilt for what he has done (I doubt the latter, but that would be getting into my opinion of his personality).
If you read Scott Atlas’s book you discover that Fauci, Birxx, and Redfield were not up to date on any research being done by other countries and private institutions. The recommendations made by Atlas based on research were dismissed and never carried out. It should be noted that there were no epidemiologists on the covid task force.
Thanks Marty. Always appreciate your frank and to the point writing. Look forward to more. Also have appreciated your participation with other doctors over the last 3 years on supporting the need for real science in medicine.
"window into a bureaucracy that has underperformed for decades" It took Elon Musk to develop rockets and engines that were built well and in the process shamed the moribund NASA and also the DoD whose rocket engine program was stalled forever.
The CDC seems to imagine and research an army of guns leaping out of bushes to kill people. Have they bothered to see the SSRIs or other dope that many of the gun users were on when they used a gun to kill?
The NIH spends fortunes yet can't develop a data dictionary to rationalize hospital reporting standards nor establish reporting rules nor develop data bases that allow deep learning. Where are the standards for electronic health records to ensure interoperability? They claim they don't have the authority yet can recommend against HCQ and IVM and those recommendations become treated as law by hospitals, doctors and pharmacists.
Absolutely accurate. That M.D.s, MD/PhDs and. PhDs whose funding depended on him would not speak up cannot be understated. This was too much power, too much money controlled by one individual for far too long. He destroyed his own legacy IMHO. . Oh and lying to Congress about GOF research/EcoHealth Alliance funding having found a work around on the 2014 moratorium on that type of work-straight up criminal. Are you judged on the best work you ever did in your career, your worst work or simply The Last Thing? I think the latter two. The entire structure of NIH, NIAID, CDC, FDA needs to be broken up.
Fauci's punishment should be him watching his legacy fall from grace EVEN from the rabid MSM fans. The feckless political cum journalists may even come around when they see blood in the water. Nah, who am I kidding. But medical doctors need to shoulder the blame. Unlike those who've published here, too many were willing to toe the line. Too many were silent. I understand the livelihood angle, but healthy young people are still being forced to take vaccines that will do more harm than good.
Also, we need to COMPLETELY dismantle the NIH, CDC, FDA and pharma's entanglement. What happened to the people who pulled vaccines when there were 1 in 100K adverse events? Where have they gone?
Bravo for this set of comments from Marty. Who could not agree with every word, comma, period, dash, and semi-colon found therein? What really keeps me awake at night now is the question of who will be the next person occupying Fauci's former office. A full-court press search committee needs to be formed and such a posse cannot be allowed to make the "top pick" based on any silly concepts that come from the crazy world of political correctness. And, God help us, hopefully we will not see as the new person some wet-behind-the-ears beginner given this job at NIAID merely because she/he "is a nice person who looks very promising moving forward". We are, as a country, now playing with fire if there continues to be willful ignorance regarding the miserable track records and leadership of various Federal agencies whose actions do seriously impact the ongoing process of public health optimization --- viz. FDA, CDC, and NIH.
I may not be remembering the timeline correctly but I think they were already talking about making vaccines (may not have been give the Warp Speed name yet ) and they still hadn’t come out publicly on whether it was airborne or surface transmitted or both. Just my opinion but that would have been the first thing I think they should have gotten straight.
Also all the public health leaders (Fauci, Walensky, etc) developed an ultra specific aphasia that made it impossible for them to saw the words “natural immunity”. Furthermore they were afflicted with an auditory / speech processing disorder because whenever someone asked them about natural immunity they demonstrated a near Tourette’s response of “Get vaccinated “.
Lastly, I know how hard it can be to spend billions of dollars, I saw “Brewster’s Millions” with Richard Pryor. But after what is it 40-50 something years I would think that Fauci would have been better at spending other people’s money.
Research on long Covid supporting that it exists means $$ for providers.
Marty, You are far, far too kind. The one essential in public health is you never lie. Fauci started out by lying about masks -- he knew that advocating them was a lie. And the First Lie was the Worst Lie. Since gullible people sucked that up ('look, Ma...we're doing something") all the following lies (anti-social distancing, quarantines of healthy people, you name it) were also able to be propagated.
I have never seen more people advocate for studies of masking but not do them. You, Vinay -- you have hundreds of RCTs going, but no one will take one on for masking? Yet everyone whines about why someone else hasn't done one? I fail to understand this. Perhaps you can explain it to me? I am certain we could come up with reasoned funding for it -- why will no one do it?
In any case (and I have sat on committees with Tony) the lying shifted my assessment from incompetent to non-forgivable...as I noted above, the one unforgivable sin in public health. There is much more to be fixed than tweaking on NIH research scheduling.
We need to de-fund the NIH, CDC and FDA.