Fauci flubs the freedom question

Fauci made two big mistakes. First, his response failed to recognize that Americans of all political persuasions really have sacrificed considerable freedom during the year-plus since the pandemic lockdowns began. While the restrictions have varied from state to state, many of us have been unable to spend time with friends or family, to worship with our faith communities, to travel, or even to conduct business in normal fashion. Like many on the left, I would argue those sacrifices have been worth it, preventing the U.S. death toll of more than a half-million people from rising to even more catastrophic heights. Most people recognize the need for the tradeoff, but it has been a tradeoff. Fauci's comments to Jordan — and his later comment to CNN that "this has nothing to do with liberty" — made him seem oblivious to those hardships, and played into the hands of conservatives who have portrayed him as a bureaucrat indifferent to the reality of most people's lives. That leads to Fauci's second, broader failure during last week's encounter. His best role during the pandemic has been as the public voice of science and reason. It is barely hyperbole to suggest he has gone on nearly every news show, talk show, YouTube channel, and podcast possible to explain the pandemic and to encourage measures like mask wearing and social distancing. The task has been complicated by America's political and cultural battles, and it would be understandable for him to be immensely frustrated by people like Jordan and other Trumpist conservatives whose hectoring has made the job more difficult and dangerous. But if Fauci has learned anything during his decades on the job, it's that public health debates don't always happen on his terms. Just ask the ACT UP activists who hassled him during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic. This isn't just a style issue — researchers estimate that as much as 85 percent of the country will need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity from COVID-19. We won't get there with Democratic voters alone.