Questioning the Science

Townhall.com ^ | December 22, 2021 | John Stossel

[Kaslin]

When people criticize Dr. Anthony Fauci, he says: "They're really criticizing science. Because I represent science."

Pretty arrogant.

I assume Fauci is a top-notch scientist. My brother worked with him at the National Institutes of Health and respected him.

But power tends to corrupt, and Fauci has been given a lot of power.

His department directed tax dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to modify coronaviruses in bats.

When Sen. Rand Paul asked Fauci about funding "gain of function" research, experiments that try to learn more about a disease by making it more contagious or deadly, Fauci denied it, saying, "Sen. Paul, you do not know what you are talking about!"

But it turns out that Paul did know what he was talking about.

The Wuhan experiments Fauci funded did not directly cause COVID-19. We know that because the molecular structure of the altered viruses is different.

But gain-of-function research is risky and deserves public discussion.

I like that Paul, unlike most of his colleagues, pushes for that discussion. In my new video, he says he does this because it's important "not only for assessing what happened and how this pandemic arose, but making sure it doesn't happen again."

Originally, "experts" claimed COVID-19 came from animals in the wet market in Wuhan. But now "experts" say that COVID-19 might have come from a lab.

"This has become so polarized that you're either completely in the bag with Fauci or completely opposed to him," says Paul. "There is no one wanting to actually get to the truth of where this came from or understand that this could happen again."

I ask Paul what he thought about Fauci's flat dismissal of anyone who criticizes him.

"That's an incredibly arrogant attitude," replied Paul. "Reminiscent of the medieval church (where) the government representative decided what was science ... Any time you have government dogma saying they are science, or government bureaucrats who claim that 'this is the one and perfect truth' ... we should run headlong away."

Today our government wants to mandate vaccines in private workplaces. The administration claims that's necessary because not enough people are vaccinated.

Paul calls that a "big lie."

"We are not stupid. The whole idea of collectivism is that people are too stupid to make their own decisions. Individuals will make rational decisions and do."

I push back. "Some people are stupid . Is there no point when the government does have a right to force a vaccination?"

"I'm not for ever forcing someone to take medical care," says Paul.

What about kids?

"The death rate among children is less than the seasonal flu," Paul points out. "We never mandated that kids get vaccinated for the seasonal flu, (even though they get) like 49 different vaccines. Can we not leave some choice for parents and kids?"

I hope so but push back again. "What if it's airborne Ebola? Does government have the right to say, you must take this medicine?"

"No," says Paul. "Once you let government in the door to make these decisions, they make onerous decisions."

They do.

I'm a libertarian. I want government out of my life.

But an epidemic is the rare exception where some government force may be appropriate. If a disease is vicious and contagious, and a medicine clearly reduces the spread, I want government to protect me from reckless people, like it protects me from murderers.

Not to say that America needs a vaccine mandate. There's been far too much government force during this pandemic already.

It's good to question the government's rules. I'm glad Paul does that.

But when it comes to epidemics, I won't say: never.

[MtnClimber]

[mountainlion]

Science is designed to be questioned and reexamined. The last rule of scientific investigation is to reexamine the whole process. Science is never setteled.

[The Louiswu]

I’ll bet that Fucci hasn’t done an actual experiment or clinical study in years, there’s no money in that and it’s hard work. No, he an administrator, a manager, cause that’s where the cash and status are.

[odawg]

“If a disease is vicious and contagious, and a medicine clearly reduces the spread, I want government to protect me from reckless people, like it protects me from murderers.”

A fine line. However, according to the predictions of many non-government, scientifically objective experts last year, the medicine, the covid vaccine, would promote the spread, not prevent it. Their predictions have come true.

[Machavelli]

The mainstream press are totally unqualified for their jobs. They have no concept of statistical analysis and the absolute rules that any trials or research must follow to be valid. They have given credence to that intellectual fraud Fauci when he is a liar and a charlatan.

[Elsie]

"Not now Igor. I have no time for questions."

[sauropod]

If you believe that, you haven’t had much interaction with “scientists” or “professors.”

I’ve had too much.

[zeestephen]

According to Wiki, Fauci graduated first in his class at Cornell Medical School in New York City.

Cornell is not an elite USA medical school, but it usually makes the Top 20.

[mountainlion]

I’ve had too much.

Still the definition of scientific method: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=scientific+method+steps&t=osx&ia=web

It still works in Engineering and such. Political science not so much.

[Da Coyote]

Fauci is to science as Biden is to intelligence.

[dkGba]

That’s pretty great, thank you for a much needed smile!

[muir_redwoods]

Did he represent science when he pushed the poison AZT as an AIDS treatment? Was he speaking for science when he used AIDS orphans in his research? Was torturing beagles to death reputable science or was in from the Mengele school of research?

[canuck_conservative]

If a disease is vicious and contagious

Yes, maybe if we get to the point where people are dropping dead in the streets, we could justify Government mandates

But we're not there yet - despite all the Democrat and Big media hype

and that's what is scary, the way certain would-be tyrants are trying to exploit a tragedy for personal gain, using "public health" as an excuse for oppression

[BrandtMichaels]

1st I know of Stossel jumping the shark

[BrandtMichaels]

Nobody is held to account when predictions fail, sure sign of junk science.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

I wouldn’t trust Stossel’s opinion lately.

[McBuff]

"I want government to protect me from reckless people, like it protects me from murderers.”

Conservatives don't reject the notion that government has a role. We recognize that "we are not angels." It's just that we also know that we are not being governed by angels, as well.

In terms of the COVID response, it's a matter of the few (and the few with vested interests) having unilateral and unconstitutional authority to decide for the many without independent review. There should be an independent board of review comprised of a broad range of medical professionals appraising the recommendations of the CDC, NIH, FDA, etc.

It isn't just that bad decisions by the few over the many are being made in violation of our rights, but also such a circumstance generally leads to bad medical decisions as well. What happened to "second opinions?"

[Jim Noble]

The Wuhan experiments Fauci funded did not directly cause COVID-19. We know that because the molecular structure of the altered viruses is different

We actually DON'T know that.

The beginnings of the interest in modifying coronaviruses to learn why SARS was SARS (why it had such avidity for the lungs) happened in the US. Before it wound up in Wuhan, money and material flowed from Bethesda to North Carolina and Canada (that we know about), I don't know if any of this made its way to Fort Detrick.

Remember the Chinese nationals who were arrested at the airport (Toronto, I think) with samples bound for Wuhan in the summer of 2019?

So, while it is probably literally true that US establishment scientists did not SPECIFICALLY fund a grant to the Wuhan lab that said "Try to create a novel coronavirus obtained from bats that will cause a worldwide human pandemic", if the creation of SARS CoV 2 was the end result of a chain of experiments that began here, and left for China only after the research was banned here, then it could certainly be said that the US funding that started the process was in some way responsible for the outcome.

[libertylover]

Remember that the same people telling us to “follow the science” are the same people telling us there are 48 different sexes, a male can have a baby, and that a fetus is a tissue blob.