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Emails reveal how Fauci, head of NIH colluded to try to smear experts
The emailsshow Fauci and Francis Collins attempting to coordinate a 'devastating takedown' of the Great Barrington Declaration, an alternate theory of prevention that abandoned lockdowns.
Emails reveal how Fauci, head of NIH colluded to try to smear experts
Stephen M. Lepore
The emailsshow Fauci and Francis Collins attempting to coordinate a 'devastating takedown' of the Great Barringt...
'There needs to be a quick and devastating take down': Emails show how Fauci and head of NIH worked to discredit three experts who penned the Great Barrington Declaration which called for an end to lockdowns
The emails show Fauci and NIH Director Francis Collins attempting to coordinate a 'devastating takedown' of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD)
AIER, a libertarian think tank, sponsored the GBD, which largely abandons lockdowns in favor of herd immunity strategy that allows life to return to normal
In an October 8 email from Collins to Fauci, the head of the NIH calls the GBD the work of 'three fringe epidemiologists' that 'seems to be getting a lot of attention'
Collins adds that 'there needs to be a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises. I don't see anything like that online yet - is it underway?'
Fauci later sends Collins multiple op-eds trashing the GBD in Wired and The Nation Magazine
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya - one of the authors and a DailyMail.com contributor - tweeted that he was the subject of a propaganda attack by his own government
By STEPHEN M. LEPORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:16 EST, 18 December 2021 | UPDATED: 08:16 EST, 19 December 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci and the head of the National Institute of Health (NIH) colluded on a way to discredit an alternative plan to deal with COVID from a group of experts, released emails reveal.
The emails, some of which were tweeted out on Saturday by Phil Magness, senior research faculty and interim research and education director at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), show Fauci and Francis Collins attempting to coordinate a 'devastating takedown' of the Great Barrington Declaration.
AIER, a libertarian think tank, sponsored the declaration, which largely abandons lockdowns in favor of a herd immunity strategy that allows life to return to normal.
In an October 8 email from Collins to Fauci, the head of the NIH calls the GBD the work of 'three fringe epidemiologists' that 'seems to be getting a lot of attention.'
Collins adds that 'there needs to be a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises. I don't see anything like that online yet - is it underway?'
Later in the day, Fauci sends Collins a Wired op-ed that refutes the notion of herd immunity stopping the pandemic.
Collins then sends Fauci an op-ed in The Nation also trashing the GBD.
A few days later, Collins emails Fauci a Washington Post op-ed he's quoted in headlined 'Proposal to hasten herd immunity to the coronavirus grabs White House attention but appalls top scientists.'
Collins - working under former President Donald Trump at the time - said 'my quotes are accurate but will not be appreciated in the [White House].'
Fauci responds: 'They are too busy with other things to worry about this. What you said was entirely correct.'
Later, Gregg Gonsalves - the writer of The Nation op-ed - sends Collins an email thanking him with a subject line that includes saying legendary AIDS activist Larry Kramer 'would be proud.'
Collins responds with a smiley face.
The GBD - authored by previous DailyMail.com contributor Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University, Sunetra Gupta of the University of Oxford and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University, calls for individuals at significantly lower risk of dying from COVID-19 – as well as those at higher risk who so wish – to be allowed 'to resume their normal lives.'
That would mean allowing people in low risk groups to go to offices, hang out in bars and restaurants and go to sporting and entertainment events.
The centerpiece of the declaration, according to Dr. Bhattacharya, is a call for increased focused protection of the vulnerable older population, who are more than a thousand times more likely to die from COVID infection than the young.
The declaration makes no mention of social distancing, masks, tracing, or long-term Covid cases but suggests that increased infection of those at lower risks would build herd immunity.
Bhattacharya tweeted in response to the emails: 'So now I know what it feels like to be the subject of a propaganda attack by my own government. Discussion and engagement would have been a better path.'
The emails - which happened while Fauci and Collins were working under President Trump - come as President Biden continues to struggle with the explosion of the Omicron variant across the country.
Biden will deliver a speech on Tuesday to announce new Covid measures to fight the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant.
It's anticipated that he will go beyond his already revealed 'Winter Plan' and address booster shots, lockdowns and mask mandates.
Earlier this month Biden announced a Covid plan to battle the virus throughout the colder months, which included booster shots for all adults, vaccinations for kids in efforts to keep schools open and expanding free at-home Covid testing.
As of Saturday morning, there were 830 cases of the Omicron Covid-19 variant confirmed by DNA sequencing across the country, a 97 percent increase from Friday morning's tally.
In reality, the true number of Omicron cases is much higher, as only 1 to 2 percent of all cases are sequenced for variant markers, but the testing data shows a disturbing national trend.
The CDC estimates that Omicron accounts for at least 13 percent of all new cases in New York, which on Saturday recorded its highest single-day tally of new Covid-19 cases ever at 29,908 - breaking its previous record of 21,027 set just one day earlier
'The winter Covid-19 surge is here,' warned New York Governor Kathy Hochul, urging everyone to get vaccinated and boosted.
Though New York's hospitalizations, which tend to lag new cases, remain below their peaks, they have climbed 25 percent in the past two weeks, straining the state's healthcare system.
Testing has now confirmed the presence of Omicron in every US state except for Oklahoma, Montana, North and South Dakota, Indiana, and Vermont, though the eventual confirmation of the highly transmissible variant in every state now seems assured.
