Luckily,US Senator Rand Paul (a physician) was able to expose Fauci for what he was...and is: a democrat Party hack. https://vault.fbi.gov/
I can't speak for Europe, but I honestly wonder how many of those 'reports' in the US about Australia were ultimately the result of Chinese propaganda efforts. China is doing everything it can to split Australia and the US as allies, and spreading a narrative in the United States that Australia has lost its way is in their interests.
A couple of states in Australia, as I've said, embraced an approaches to COVID that were extremist - the two most left wing states in the country. The other parts of the country did not. Nor did the Federal government, except arguably on some aspects of vaccination, but even there that happened because of the influence of those two extremist states. But American media from everything I could see, seem to be presenting those two states as the norm in Australia, rather than as the exceptions.