{"id":67820,"date":"2021-06-03T15:05:46","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T19:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=67820"},"modified":"2021-06-03T15:05:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T19:05:46","slug":"wow-faucis-pandemic-emails-portray-a-guilty-as-sin-co-conspirator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=67820","title":{"rendered":"WOW! Fauci’s Pandemic Emails Portray a Guilty-as-Sin Co-Conspirator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Fauci\u2019s pandemic emails: \u2018All is well despite some crazy people in this world\u2019<\/h1>\n

Damian Paletta, Yasmeen Abutaleb
\nMSN<\/p>\n

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As the coronavirus pandemic engulfed the world last spring, Science magazine quoted a top Chinese health official saying that the United States and other Western nations were making a \u201cbig mistake\u201d by not telling people to mask up.\"a<\/span>\u00a9 Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post<\/span>\u00a0Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens as President Donald Trump participates in a vaccine development event at the White House on May 15, 2020.<\/span><\/span>Science magazine stands by its reporting. But the official, George Gao, worried that the comment might upset his longtime friend Anthony S. Fauci, Washington\u2019s leading expert on infectious diseases. So amid the deepening crisis, Gao reached out to clear the air.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI saw the Science interview, how could I say such a word \u2018big mistake\u2019 about others? That was journalist\u2019s wording. Hope you understand,\u201d Gao, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote to Fauci in a March 28 email. “Lets work together to get the virus out of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLets work together to get the virus out of the earth.\u201d<\/h3>\n

\u201cI understand completely. No problem,\u201d Fauci wrote back. \u201cWe will get through this together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previously unreported exchange was among 866 pages of Fauci\u2019s emails obtained by The Washington Post as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. The correspondence from March and April 2020 opens a window to Fauci\u2019s world during some of the most frantic days of the crisis, when the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was struggling to bring coherence to the Trump administration\u2019s chaotic response to the virus and President Donald Trump was seeking to minimize its severity.<\/p>\n

Fauci\u2019s actions during that period and beyond remain an intense focus for many Americans and political leaders. Now serving his seventh president, Fauci, 80, is helping to craft President Biden\u2019s pandemic strategy, and many Republicans accuse him of playing a key role in Trump\u2019s loss in the November election.<\/p>\n

During daily televised briefings at the White House, Fauci emerged as an at times reluctant \u2014 and polarizing \u2014 media star: To Trump supporters, he was a contrarian who seemed to undermine the president at every turn, while others viewed him as a reassuring voice of reason. The emails show that he was inundated with correspondence from colleagues, hospital administrators, foreign governments and random strangers \u2014 about 1,000 messages a day, he says at one point \u2014 writing to seek his advice, solicit his help or simply offer encouragement.<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/span>\u00a9 Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post<\/span>\u00a0President Trump listens as Fauci speaks with members of the coronavirus task force at a briefing at the White House on March 31.<\/span><\/span>The medical director of the National Football League Players Association asked Fauci for a confidential briefing on how to safely start the next NFL season. A documentary filmmaker working on a forthcoming Disney-backed biopic asked to ride along as Fauci drove to work. An adviser to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates expressed concern about Fauci\u2019s health. And a senior House Republican told Fauci to \u201ckeep being a science truth teller\u201d despite skepticism about the virus from other GOP lawmakers and Trump himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting every single kind of question, mostly people who were a little bit confused about the mixed messages that were coming out of the White House and wanted to know what\u2019s the real scoop,\u201d Fauci said in a recent interview. \u201cI have a reputation that I respond to people when they ask for help, even if it takes a long time. And it\u2019s very time consuming, but I do\u201d respond.<\/p>\n

The released emails show that Fauci indeed tried to answer many queries, sometimes hitting \u201csend\u201d well after midnight. And even as Trump ratcheted up attacks on China for not containing the virus after it was first discovered there, Fauci sought to maintain ties with Gao, a well-regarded Chinese scientific leader \u2014 and Gao with him.<\/p>\n

After Fauci faced threats from Trump supporters who blamed him for supporting social distancing rules that closed schools, tanked the economy and threatened Trump\u2019s reelection prospects, Gao, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, emailed again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw some news (hope it is fake) that [you] are being attacked by some people. Hope you are well under such a irrational situation,\u201d Gao wrote on April 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your kind note,\u201d Fauci replied three days later. \u201cAll is well despite some crazy people in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Cover your six\u2019<\/h3>\n

Threats from the \u201ccrazy people\u201d would lead U.S. officials to assign Fauci a full-time security detail. On April 26, he received an email from Freddie Barnes, a military veteran and chaplain with North Carolina\u2019s Department of Public Safety writing \u201cto express my profound appreciation to you for your work during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI especially appreciate how you have spent considerable time and capital reaching out to the Black and brown communities,\u201d Barnes wrote. \u201cFor you to be intentional about keeping minority communities in the loop is commendable, especially since these communities will be absorbing the disproportionate share of sicknesses and deaths coming from COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ended the email with a warning: \u201cTake care and \u2018Cover your six\u2019 \u201d \u2014 military slang for \u201cwatch your back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018What keeps me up at night\u2019<\/h3>\n

On April 14, 2020, a day when nearly 3,000 Americans would die of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, Fauci received an earnest list of questions from a senior official in the Office of the Surgeon General in the Army and U.S. Army Medical Command.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the voice of reason for millions of concerned citizens,\u201d wrote the official, whose name was redacted in the released emails. A list of questions followed: Can the virus be contracted from a corpse? Can someone who has taken hydroxychloroquine for years contract the virus? Are masks and gloves truly effective?<\/p>\n

Finally: \u201cWhat keeps you up at night, regarding COVID-19?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fauci forwarded the email to some of his top advisers and asked for help crafting a response. He replied a few days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have said in the past that what keeps me up at night is the possibility of a pandemic respiratory infection. We are in that now, and what keeps me up at night is the response, a major part of which is the development of an effective vaccine and treatments for COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Video: ‘Our Society is Really Totally Nuts’ : Fauci in Emails (Veuer)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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