WASHINGTON (CN) — Shooting down a “deep-state” conspiracy theory on the Covid-19 vaccine and eviscerating an unscientific claim that herd immunity lowered virus transmissions in hard-hit New York City were just two items on a packed agenda for public health officials called Wednesday to testify before Congress on the state of the pandemic.
It was a scene reminiscent of earlier hearings hosted by the Republican-controlled Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, fielded curt questions from Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, on the very science underpinning what the nation’s top experts know so far about the novel respiratory virus.
In May when just 80,000 Americans were dead, Paul — who was the first U.S. senator to test positive for Covid-19 — was highly critical of Fauci’s recommendations supporting state shutdowns to limit transmission. Paul said then he did not think the director was the “end-all” expert on how the U.S. should handle the pandemic and ridiculed his positions broadly on immunity.
Five months later and with over 200,000 Americans dead, it was déjà vu as Paul, without scientific evidence to back up his statements, once again criticized the immunologist’s support of state shutdowns.
Saying the staggering death toll would have been “the same” with or without them, Paul asserted infection rates in New York City were only low now because the city of over 8 million reached herd immunity, meaning enough of a population has become infected that transmission significantly slows or ends.
“How can we possibly be jumping up and down and saying, ‘Oh, Governor Cuomo did a great job!’” Paul said, claiming New York had the highest death rate in the world.
True to a blunt style the director has exhibited since first taking up the leadership role on the White House’s coronavirus task force, Fauci shot back: “No, you misconstrued that, senator. And you’ve done that repetitively in the past.”
New York was badly hit, and the state “made some mistakes” at the start of the pandemic, Fauci acknowledged.
He was adamant that herd immunity has nothing to do with the success in reducing transmission.
“If you look at what is going on right now, the things going on in New York to get their test positivity to 1% or less is because they are looking at the guidelines we have put together from the task force ... masks, social distancing, outdoors more than indoors, avoiding crowds and washing hands,” Fauci said.
“Or they developed enough community immunity,” Paul interrupted, prompting a quick response from Fauci.
“I challenge that, senator,” Fauci said before asking Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, for more time to respond to Rand.
“Please, sir, I’d like to be able to do this. This happens with Senator Rand all the time,” Fauci said before turning to Paul.
“You are not listening to what the director of the CDC has said. In New York City, it’s about 22% [infected with Covid-19],” Fauci said. “If you believe 22 percent is herd immunity, I believe you’re alone in that.”
Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn was also put to the task Wednesday of unwinding misinformation on the virus circulating from some of the highest rungs — if not the very highest rung — of the federal government.
Just ahead of the Republican National Convention in August, and playing up a shared conspiracy theory popular among some members of his base, Trump tagged the FDA administrator in a tweet that was shared over 37,000 times.
