COVID is a scab that keeps on bleeding

OPINION:

Sen. Rand Paul has introduced the NIH Reform Act aimed at bringing a bit more accountability to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, so that never again will another Anthony Fauci-type tyrant be able to rule, err, reign, oops, serve in so unilateral of way.

The legislation comes as Pew Research finds this, based on poll results published this week: “Most Americans say the pandemic drove the country apart.”

It wasn’t the coronavirus pandemic that drove apart the country. It was the bureaucratic class.

So the Kentucky Republican is on the right trail by bringing forth a bill that does just that to the NIAID: Divide it into three separate agencies.

“The NIH Reform Act would separate the NIAID into three national research institutes: the National Institute of Allergic Diseases, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Immunologic Diseases. Each new institute would be led by directors subject to Senate confirmation and limited to no more than two 5-year terms to prevent the unchecked authority that led to sweeping and disastrous pandemic-era mandates,” according to a release from Paul’s office.

Mandates that were never passed into law; mandates that were more often than not pressed into enforcement by a single health bureaucrat; mandates that stripped individuals of nearly all their God-given freedoms and liberties for random, unsound, unscientific and totally unnecessary fear-driven reasons.

Mandates that were sparked by Fauci and his band of merry “I am science, hear me roar!” dictatorial minions.

“For nearly four decades, Dr. Anthony Fauci sat atop a bureaucratic empire, wielding unchecked power over public health policy — despite never being confirmed by the Senate once,” Paul said in a written statement. “He dictated mandates that shut down businesses, kept kids out of school and trampled individual liberties — all while being the highest-paid official in the federal government. That kind of power without oversight is dangerous.”

Yes. Quite.

Americans saw how dangerous it was when they were put in positions of having to ask government bureaucrats permission to go outside; go to the park and beach; travel via subway, bus, train, plane and even, in some cases, car; attend school and bring their children to school; work; go shopping; go to the gym; go to church. But buy marijuana? Purchase alcohol? Those activities were fine; those establishments weren’t closed.

The local restaurant may have been forced to shut its doors — but not Walmart. 

The nearby eatery may have been ordered to close — but not the hairdresser who cut then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hair; not the club that served platters of hors d’oeuvres to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his fundraising pals. 

The local baseball parks may have been off-limits to most, save the few, select, carefully chosen mask-wearers — but not to Fauci; not to Fauci and his friends; nay, not even when Fauci took off his face mask. And where’s the accountability for all this Democrat-fueled power grab of individual rights?

“Anthony Fauci Receives Public Health’s Highest Honor,” Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health wrote in April of 2023, of the good dohktah’s receipt of the Frank A. Calderon Prize.

That was after he was nominated for People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2021. That was after being called a hero to the nation for the umpteenth time; co-conspiratorial COVID tyrant Bill Gates, for instance, called him a “hero to millions of people, including me,” in August of 2022.

Fauci: the guy who said he was all science, zero policy, but then attacked anyone and everyone who dared disagree with his so-called scientific advisements — even when time proved him wrong; even when all his statements and warnings and caveats turned out to be false. 

“Fauci: Vaccinated people become ‘dead ends’ for the coronavirus,” The Hill wrote in May of 2021.

Umm. No. They didn’t.

“Fauci confident vaccines can ‘crush’ COVID,” CBC reported in December of 2020.

Umm. No. They didn’t.

But the list of Fauci and Fauci Fan Club false statements is long. It’d be great to have some clarity on the false statements — some honesty leading to accountability. But Joe Biden slammed the lid tight on that when he used his final presidential breaths to pardon Fauci. For what? Just in case. For whatever might pop in the future; for whatever might have been seen as investigation worthy by the Republicans.

No wonder Americans are still divided over COVID. All the criminals have escaped prosecution. 

“Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) say the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together,” Pew wrote.

That’s because the Democrats forced Americans to take unnecessary, experimental and even dangerous medicines they did not want — medicines initially labeled vaccines but then changed once it was realized the classic preventive definition of vaccination did not apply to the COVID shots. And it’s because all the stuff the medical bureaucrats told Americans to do was random and unscientific and for the most part, stupid. And it’s because the politicians in charge and elites in media ran roughshod over individual rights because they cared more for personal and business agendas than for constitutional rights.

But mostly it’s because the bureaucrats saw opportunity, smelled fear and cojoined the two so as to pad their political power.

Breaking up the NIAID and setting up a system of congressional oversight is the least that ought to happen, post-COVID. 

Jail for those who caused real harm would be better. Imprisonment for those who forced shots or who fired employees for refusing medical treatment would be better.

But dividing the NIAID so as to keep its unelected bureaucrats from ever conquering again is a good alternative and any congressional member who refuses to support the idea should be seen as part of the problem and voted from office.

Never again should health be used by bureaucrats as a means of seizing liberties and gaining personal power.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.