Fauci backing out of Nerd Prom puts Biden, journos in a science-inspired Covid conundrum

(Video: CBS News)

Left-wing folk hero Dr. Anthony Fauci, 81, has bowed out of the upcoming White House Correspondents Association Dinner because of COVID concerns.

“The nation’s top doctor will no longer be attending the White House Correspondents Association Dinner this Saturday. Dr. Anthony Fauci had been invited to attend as a guest of ABC News and had planned on going, sources familiar with the matter told Kaitlan Collins and me,” CNN’s Oliver Darcy has confirmed.

“But he recently decided to abandon those plans and inform ABC that he would no longer attend because of an individual assessment of his own personal risk, the sources said. Fauci’s decision comes amid concerns that the event could become a superspreader like the annual Gridiron Dinner held weeks ago, even though the WHCA is taking all the expected Covid precautions,” Darcy added.

This matters, critics say, because Fauci’s considered to be the alpha and omega of so-called “Science™” — like he himself said last year, “I represent science.”

So if he, “Science™” itself, refuses to attend because of COVID concerns, then wouldn’t it be logical, critics argue, for all the believers of “Science™” to also not attend?

Among those still slated to attend is President Joe Biden, 79.

“[H]e’ll be attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. It’s an opportunity to honor the work of all of you and many of your colleagues and to — and to talk about the importance of journalism in the world,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced during Tuesday’s daily briefing.

“That’s an event he’s attended many times in the past, and he made a decision, through consultations, that it was an event he could attend and wanted to attend again,” she added.

She also defended his decision.

“Now, naturally, he has access to the best healthcare in the world. He consults closely with his doctor. We take a range of steps — I noted in response to MJ’s question earlier — that go beyond even most workplaces in the country in terms of required testing for those who — who will be around him, social distancing. Obviously, he has his own regular testing cadence,” she said.

“But we do make assessments and he makes assessments about when he feels it’s important for him to attend or participate in an event,” Psaki added.

But this defense left some wondering why regular Americans have often not been granted the same right to decide for themselves what’s best for them.

Critics also wonder why the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) isn’t just canceling this year’s dinner or, at the very least, conducting it through an online video-conferencing application like Zoom.

Stephen L. Miller, a conservative commentator, has for his part been pressuring WHCA president Steven Portnoy to go ahead and cancel the dinner for the sake of “Science™.”

Look:

But apparently, Portnoy doesn’t listen to the “Science™,” because as of Wednesday, the upcoming WHCA dinner was still good to go.

In fairness to Portnoy, the actual science has made it clear that America has overcome COVID. Indeed, even Fauci himself recently admitted this in an interview.

Asked about the potential “end” to the pandemic, he told PBS’s Judy Woodruff, “We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase. Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.”

So even Mr. “Science™” seems to recognize the actual science, though whether or not that means this administration will stop trying to force Americans to mask up remains to be seen, …

Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles