Days before Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was set to to testify on the U.S.'s pandemic response, House Republicans released a transcript from his closed-door meeting with House members that took place back in January.
In this 14-hour, two-day testimony with the Select Subcommittee on the COVID-19 Pandemic , Fauci admitted that social distancing guidelines were not based on science. Instead, the idea of making Americans stay 6-feet apart “sort of just appeared.” He further acknowledged that he “was not aware of studies” to support the practice, which was implemented everywhere from schools and businesses to houses of worship.
Similarly, Fauci could not point to any data to support masking children as young as 2.
“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” GOP counsel asked, according to the transcript.
Fauci responded, “You know, I might have, Mitch, but I don’t recall specifically that I did. I might have.”
The counsel then pointed to studies and data from the pandemic that suggest masking harmed child development and education.
“There’s been a lot of studies that have come out since the pandemic started, but specifically on this there have been significant on, kind of like the learning loss and speech and development issues that have been associated with particularly young children wearing masks while they’re growing up. They can’t see their teacher talk and can’t learn how to form words. Have you followed any of those studies?” the counsel asked.
“No,” Fauci answered. He went on to say he believes the scientific data on child masking is still mixed.
“I believe that there are a lot of conflicting studies too, that there are those that say, yes, there is an impact, and there are those that say there’s not. I still think that’s up in the air,” he said. “I mean, I’m very sensitive to children. I have children and I have grandchildren. So, I don’t want to have anything that would do to harm them [sic]. But I think that there was a conflicting discussion about the negative impact on speech and formation of the bones of the face, and that I think was debunked pretty easily.” (Daily Wire)
When pressed on Monday, Fauci emphasized “all of that is in the context of, at the time, 4,000-5,000 people a day were dying,” though he went on to admit, “There was no study that did masks on kids.”
Under oath, Fauci admits that he forced our kids to wear masks for no reason.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 2, 2024
For this alone, he belongs behind bars.
For life. pic.twitter.com/ydnL3LHDKr
Zero science
— Kambree (@KamVTV) July 13, 2021
Insane. Fauci doubles down.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 3, 2024
He says closures, stay-at-home orders, vaccine mandates, & masks mandates for kids were justified despite previously admitting there's no scientific backing in these actions.
Anthony Fauci belongs in jail. pic.twitter.com/G4tWRnP9Nf