In the iconic scene from the 1992 film “A Few Good Men,” Lieutenant Kaffee, while trying to uncover who ordered the Code Red that resulted in the death of a marine, tells Colonel Jessup, “I want the truth!” to which Jessup responds, “You can’t handle the truth!”
The idea that a high-ranking military officer could singlehandedly determine who can and cannot “handle the truth” is a scary thought, although I bet it is a common occurrence at the Pentagon these days.
However, what if a highly paid, highly regarded, and highly respected government bureaucrat, who was tasked with overseeing the nation’s response to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, took it upon himself to determine who can and cannot “handle the truth” regarding a wide range of topics and policies that upended the lives of millions of Americans?
Unfortunately, that is the scenario that played out throughout the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the constant lack of candor courtesy of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, became the face of the U.S. pandemic response in the early months of 2020.
At the time, he was generally viewed as a highly touted expert who was tasked with forming the national response to a novel virus that we knew very little about, including its origin and how to best combat it.
Fauci’s stint as the Czar of COVID-19 got off to a rocky start when he insisted that the virus “evolved in nature and then jumped species” despite the fact that ample evidence and commonsense indicated the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Why did Fauci lie about the lab leak? Or, in other words, why did he conclude that we couldn’t handle the truth regarding the origins of COVID-19? Perhaps because the truth implicated Fauci and highlighted his complicity in the gain-of-function research that was illegally conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the auspices of Fauci.
On multiple occasions, Fauci has appeared before Congress and unequivocally stated that no gain-of-function grants or research occurred at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on his watch.
But, in late 2011, Fauci penned an op-ed for The Washington Post in which he wrote the benefits of “engineered viruses” are a “risk worth taking.”
Seven years later, at a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases conference, Fauci celebrated the fact that he was able to circumvent President Obama’s ban on gain-of-function research during the early days of the Trump administration.
Moreover, evidence indicates Fauci and Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, evaded restrictions on gain-of-funding research by outsourcing their dangerous gain-of-function experiments to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
On January 9, 2024, Fauci appeared before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in which he provided eight hours of closed-door testimony. On the topic of his role regarding gain-of-function research, Fauci “profusely defended his previous Congressional testimony where he stated NIH does not fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan,” “repeatedly played semantics with the definition of gain-of-function in an attempt to avoid conceding that NIH funded potentially dangerous research in China,” “testified that he signed off on every foreign and domestic NIAID grant without reviewing the proposals,” “was aware of dangerous gain-of-function research occurring in Wuhan, China,” and “was unable to confirm if NIAID has ANY mechanisms to conduct oversight of the foreign laboratories they fund.”
What’s more, “Dr. Fauci claimed he ‘did not recall’ pertinent COVID-19 information or conversations more than 100 times.”
Fauci also determined that we can’t handle truth concerning the efficacy of face masks, lockdowns, school closures, and vaccines.
For example, on February 5, 2020, Fauci sent an email to a colleague stating, “Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection. The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you. I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location.”
A few days later, Fauci changed his tune, imploring Americans to wear face masks at all times, in all situations, including when they went outside. Later, he went even further, recommending that Americans wear multiple masks, calling it “commonsense” to do so.
It’s been nearly four years since the COVID-19 pandemic caused mass mayhem, yet we are still in fact-finding mode because so-called experts like Fauci decided that we can’t handle truth.
Eventually, I believe the unvarnished truth concerning the origin of COVID-19 and the destructive and potentially deadly policy decisions made by Fauci based on his whims will come to light. But, for the truth to win, we the people must demand that we will accept no less than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.