News/Commentary

Fauci implies China’s draconian ‘zero-Covid’ strategy is ‘okay’ if there’s an ‘underlying purpose’

November 29, 2022 | | Print Article

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, was asked during an appearance on CNN if China’s “zero-Covid policy” is “scientific and effective,” and his take on the draconian lockdown measures raised plenty of eyebrows.

“China’s official news agency today published an op-ed asserting that the country’s strict COVID measures are scientific and effective. Are they?” asked Jake Tapper, host of “The Lead.”

“Well, when you want to shut down in order to interrupt immediately a process that’s going on like the spread of infection, there should be a purpose to it,” he said. “Like you want to make sure you get enough ventilators, or enough PPE, or you want to get your population vaccinated.”

“The comment that I made about their severe actions that they’ve taken is that you have to have an endgame. What’s the purpose? If the purpose is lets get all the people vaccinated, particularly the elderly, then okay for a temporary period of time to do that,” he continued.

It was the “okay” that jumped out given that there are unprecedented protests taking place in China over the severe lockdown measures in place, of which Fauci took note while again seeming to condone it if there’s an “underlying purpose.”

“But they have very, very strict type of a lockdown. They’re locking people in their homes, which is really, they can’t even go out and, from what I hear, shop or walk a dog or something like that,” he said. “That’s going to create a lot of pushback on the part of the population if there’s no underlying purpose of what you want to do.”

Tapper would follow up to point out that the Chinese government is saying they’re doing it to stop the spread, before asking Fauci if that is effective “in terms of the cost-benefit analysis.”

The infectious disease expert reiterated that lockdowns are okay if they are temporary and have a “purpose,” before concluding with a plug for Covid-19 vaccines.

“Well, if you stop the spread but don’t put into place something that will protect you when you open up, when you open up, you’re going to wind up getting spread,” Fauci replied. “So, again, get to the point that when you’re talking about shutting things down, it should always be a temporary phenomenon. Not a long-range strategy. But you should do it with a purpose in mind to allow you to open. And the best purpose is, while you’re shutting down, get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can with a good vaccine.”

The reaction to Fauci saying the measures seen in China are “okay” if there’s an “underlying purpose” to them came fast and hard — here’s a quick sampling from Twitter:

Tom Tillison
Latest posts by Tom Tillison (see all)

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