Rep. Paul slams Fauci for flipping on earlier support for school closings

As The New York Times recently reported, a new study suggests many children carry antibodies shielding them from COVID-19 infection.

In response to the news, some critics of White House coronavirus task force adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci believe he owes an apology to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

“Much lower than expected threshold”

Journalist Jack Posobiec made the argument in a tweet that Fauci, who debated with Paul the issue of in-person learning during a Senate hearing in May.

Arguing that Fauci did not owe him an apology, Paul replied that he “owes one to every single parent and school-age child in America.”

The senator later argued that the latest evidence is “precisely the science Dr. Fauci was denying in our last encounter” and “helps explain why herd immunity may come at a much lower than expected threshold.”

At one point during his exchange with Fauci on Capitol Hill earlier this year, Paul pressed him: “Shouldn’t we at least be discussing what the mortality of children is?”

Paul went on to express his hope that “people who are predicting doom and gloom” would admit their error if a forecasted surge did not materialize.

“Try as best as possible within reason”

“I think the ‘one size fits all,’ that we’re going to have a national strategy and nobody’s going to go to school, is kind of ridiculous,” the senator said at the time. “We really ought to be doing it school district by school district.”

Acknowledging that he respected the medical expert, Paul asserted in May that he did not believe Fauci was “the end-all” or “the one person that gets to make a decision” regarding the nation’s COVID-19 response.

In response to Paul’s concern that “the poor and underprivileged kids” would fall further behind if schools remained closed for another year, Fauci remained cautious, saying: “I think we better be careful that we’re not cavalier, in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects.”

In an ABC News appearance on Sunday, however, Fauci expressed a very different point of view.

“Close the bars and keep the schools open,” he declared. “The default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school.”

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