What our public health czars failed to appreciate is that civil rights are most essential during emergencies, because during those times, the government is most likely to try to reduce or eliminate them. In August 2020, Fauci said of vaccine mandates, “You don’t want to … try and force someone to take the vaccine,” and that although it was permissible for certain groups, “we’ve never done that … for the general population.”įast forward a year or so, and Fauci succumbed to the temptation that haunts every weak-willed bureaucrat, saying that we needed a vaccine mandate because it would be “another incentive to get more people vaccinated.” Sure enough, the government went on to issue a nationwide vaccine mandate despite lacking the legal authority to do so. If you were paying attention to Fauci over the course of the pandemic, you could watch him succumb to the temptation to sacrifice liberty for security in real time. The context for the quote, by the way, was the Civil War. That’s why the Supreme Court has said that the Constitution “covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances” and that none of its protections “can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government.” In every emergency, government officials face the temptation to restrict civil liberties in the name of safety.
Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, about health measures amidst the pandemic: “I don’t look at this as a liberty thing … just as a public health thing.” It is worth recalling Fauci’s comments in response to questions from Rep.
It is one thing to temporarily engage emergency powers for, say, 15 days to mobilize against an unforeseen threat to public safety, it is another to extend them for years even as medical improvements continually reduce the public danger. Still, Paul’s move puts a spotlight on the outsized role that America’s public health czars-from Fauci to Francis Collins to Rochelle Walensky-have played in undermining civil liberties in the name of the public health. Their recommendations have disregarded civil liberties and have too often been wrong, but local officials who blindly followed them deserve their fair share of blame as well. For the most part, our health czars issue recommendations that local officials implement. Paul makes it clear that his priority is not merely administrative reorganization but the removal of the nation’s “dictator in chief” who has exercised “unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans.”Īlthough the focus is on Fauci, don’t let him hog all the blame. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced an amendment that would split the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases into three separate agencies, thus eliminating Dr.
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