WASHINGTON – During a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education regarding the budget for the National Institutes of Health, Senator Mike Braun questioned NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci on the future validity of COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
Senator Braun noted his concern that stringent COVID measures have done damage to the economy measured in the trillions of dollars and hurt Americans’ health in ways that we are just now coming to understand, all without being proven to be effective at their intended purpose. Senator Braun told the witnesses he is worried that further implementation of these harmful COVID measures would be the final straw on a bent-but-not-broken recovering U.S. economy, already dealing with historic levels of inflation and product scarcity.
When Senator Braun asked about removing lockdowns as a tool to fight COVID, Dr. Fauci responded:
“Right now…. I don’t see the need to lock down in the future…. Even if we get a new variant – I think the vaccinations that we have, have enough cross-reactivity plus the ability to make variant-specific boosters – I don’t see lockdowns in the future.”
Senator Braun said he was glad to hear Dr. Fauci’s answer, and said he hoped the Biden administration was paying attention to the answer.
Senator Braun later pressed Dr. Fauci if he would ever recommend the future vaccination requirements for work in the U.S., Dr. Fauci equivocated:
“It’s a policy call…. I don’t like mandates.”
Senator Braun ended by reiterating to Dr. Fauci:
“We should pay attention to the science, not the political science.”
Watch the full exchange here:
