Fauci Urges Americans to 'Put Aside' Concerns About Personal Liberty and Freedom
Dr. Anthony Fauci downplayed personal liberty Sunday in another plea for Americans to do as he says.
Fauci, during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said vaccinations alone will not address the threat of the fast-spreading delta variant of the coronavirus.
“[W]e are going to have to continue to get people vaccinated so that right now, even in states in which you have a good relative proportion of people vaccinated, you have to get the overwhelming proportion of people vaccinated,” he said, according to CBS News.
“But you also have to do mitigation. And that gets to the controversial issue of mask-wearing and the mandating of things.”
Fauci spoke of the potential need for “mandating of vaccines, for example, for teachers and people in the personnel in the school, but also in situations as uncomfortable as we know and controversial as we know it is with regard to masks wearing, particularly in the situation in schools, we’ve just got to realize that we’re dealing with a public health crisis.”
Fauci asks people to “put aside” concerns of personal liberty and recognize “common enemy” of COVID-19 https://t.co/vUZcND90cH pic.twitter.com/C66UQt0JbF
— The Hill (@thehill) August 15, 2021
“We’ve got to do mitigation, put aside all of these issues of concern about liberties and personal liberties and realize we have a common enemy and that common enemy is the virus,” he said.
On the subject of a third or booster shot, Fauci said experts are looking at populations “not only in the United States, but in other countries to determine if, when and to whom we should be giving this.”
“So if it turns out as the data come in, we see we do need to give an additional dose to people in nursing homes, actually, or people who are elderly, we will be absolutely prepared to do that very quickly,” he said.
Fauci was repeating a frequent theme about personal freedom.
“We are in a critical situation now,” Fauci said on MSNBC last week. “We’ve had 615,000-plus deaths and we are in a major surge now as we’re going into the fall, into the school season. This is very serious business. You would wish that people would see why it’s so important to get vaccinated.”
“But you’re not going to get mandates centrally from the federal government,” he continued. “But when you’re talking about local mandates, mandates for schools, for teachers, for universities, for colleges, I’m sorry, I know people must like to have their individual freedom and not be told to do something, but I think we’re in such a serious situation now that under certain circumstances mandates should be done.”
Personal liberty > Father Fauci https://t.co/Zry7MwpNlA
— Kiel (Kyle) (@home_grown_sanc) August 10, 2021
In an April hearing, Fauci and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio sparred over the issue of liberty.
“[W]hat measure, what standard, what objective outcome, do we have to reach before– before Americans get their liberty and freedoms back?” Jordan asked, according to Cleveland.com.
“You know, I– you’re indicating liberty and freedom. I look at it as a public health measure to prevent people from dying and going to the hospital … I don’t look at this as a liberty thing,” Fauci replied.
“Well that’s obvious,” Jordan said.
Rep. Jordan (R-OH) demands Dr. Fauci give him a date for the end of COVID mitigation measures:
“15 days to slow the spread turned into 1 year of lost liberty.”
Fauci says: “I don’t look at this as a liberty thing, Congressman Jordan. I look at this as a public health thing.” pic.twitter.com/Pgv2mEySeo
— The Recount (@therecount) April 15, 2021
Last November, Fauci was miffed that experts telling the American people revolving versions of what to do were seen as “authoritarian,” according to CNBC.
“I was talking with my U.K. colleagues who are saying the U.K. is similar to where we are now, because each of our countries have that independent spirit,” he said.
“I can understand that, but now is the time to do what you’re told.”
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