Is It Time Bench Fauci?

Authored by Adriana Cohen via RealClearPolitics.com,

The single biggest threat against President Donald Trump’s reelection in November isn’t unhinged liberals out for blood, a hostile media or even a politicized U.S. Supreme Court; it’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

If he’s not reined in, then he may succeed in making Trump a one-term president.

Here’s why.

One of the most important things an incumbent needs to secure reelection is a strong economy, but due to the radical lockdown and months-long national quarantine Fauci championed in March to mitigate the pandemic, the U.S. economy was dealt a devastating blow, resulting in 46 million Americans losing their jobs. So, now, instead of the president galloping into the November election leading one of the hottest economies on record, he’s trudging to the ballot box hoping the economy will recover quickly enough.

Strike 1.

In hindsight, advisers like Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, should’ve recommended a partial lockdown and a quarantine only for our nation’s most vulnerable citizens — the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions — not the entire country. But that moderate and reasonable approach didn’t happen. Instead, the president adopted the questionable advice of Fauci and others who favored a national lockdown — which many voters consider Draconian — kneecapping the economy and our collective rights and now jeopardizing the president’s reelection chances.

Strike 2.

Fauci has also sowed skepticism about kids going back to school in the fall, radically influencing, if not forever altering, our entire U.S. education system. Since March, when schools were closed nationwide, approximately 57 million American children were forced into isolation at home, cut off from friends, socialization, sports and normal activities. Scores have been denied a quality education and have suffered detrimental effects to their mental and physical health — unnecessarily — as it’s well-known that children are a low-risk group for getting the coronavirus and dying from it. For reference, in Massachusetts, a hotspot for coronavirus, not a single child ages 0-19 has died from coronavirus according to the mass.gov website.

But that’s not all Fauci is radically altering in the name of public health. Turns out, he wants to cancel football, too. During a recent interview, Fauci told CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta:

“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall. If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”

Strike 3.

Americans are not going to accept a beloved American pastime like football — or other pro sports — being canceled indefinitely because Fauci, an unelected bureaucrat with an opinion, says so.

Bottom line: If the president doesn’t bench Fauci soon and reject his endless calls for extreme mitigation measures, he’s likely to join 46 million on the unemployment line come November.