During a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus hearing Monday, Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) questioned Dr. Fauci on whether he still believes prevention methods he supported were justified.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 questions
00:02 Thank You mr. Chairman, thank you for being here and I do want to echo some of what mr.
00:07 Info may said because I do think we need to focus on the people and I think that's really
00:11 what
00:14 The angst that's left with the American people it's what they had to walk through during this time
00:19 I'm gonna go down a list of mitigation measures that you supported over the course of the pandemic and ask you just to give a yes
00:26 Or no as to whether you still believe these measures were justified
00:29 business closures
00:31 Not hearing you at all, could you please speak louder sure
00:36 I'm gonna go through a list of kovat mitigation measures that you supported over the course of the pandemic and ask you to give me a
00:42 Yes, or no as to whether you believe these measures were justified business closures
00:46 Leon when 5,000 people were dying a day. Yes church closers
00:53 Same thing school closures
00:57 again the stay-at-home orders
00:59 These were important when we were trying to stop the tsunami of deaths that were occurring early on
01:06 All right, how long you kept them going is
01:09 debatable mask mandates for adults mask mandates for children mask mandates for children under five and
01:16 Going back to what I said before all of that is in the context of at the time
01:22 Mask mandates for children under five day like evidence for that. Excuse me mask mandates for children under five. There's scientific evidence supporting that
01:30 There was no study that did masks one kids before you couldn't do the study
01:35 You had to respond to an epidemic that was killing four to five thousand Americans
01:41 vaccine mandates for employees
01:43 vaccine mandates for students vaccine mandates for military
01:48 Vaccines save lives. It is very very clear that vaccines have saved hundreds of thousands of Americans and
01:56 Did or do the vaccines the kovat 19 vaccine stopped anyone from getting kovat I
02:04 Answered that question to the chairman
02:08 Early on it became clear
02:10 That they did no actually no in the beginning
02:14 It clearly prevented infection in a certain percentage of people but the durability of its ability to prevent
02:21 Infection was not long. It was measured in months and they didn't stop you from spreading it either
02:27 Early on it did if it prevented infection, but what became clear that it did not prevent
02:34 transmission when the ability to prevent infection I think what's troubling is when the American people look at the
02:43 Uncertainty and the the case at which people lost jobs. They lost livelihoods
02:49 I had rural hospitals in my in my area that did not have a single case of kovat in their rural
02:55 Community that had to shut down and people not get care that they did need
03:00 For cancer and and some passed away because of those kind of things
03:04 and and
03:07 Time after time and people's lives are destroyed and we have not seen the same
03:12 Sort of once the new data came available
03:15 We did not see a change of course and you'll point out for example in the schools that the CDC
03:20 you know put out the guidelines for example, but
03:23 But we know that those guidelines end up being protection from lawsuits
03:29 It's if you don't want to be sued you better follow the guidelines. So they're not
03:33 mandates de facto mandates, but they
03:36 Turn out to be such a mandate
03:39 And and when the science began to change being care we all understand that in the first couple weeks
03:43 First few weeks even a couple months. We were all trying to figure it out
03:48 I think there's a lot of grace for that. The concern is that as the science became available
03:53 There wasn't like a oh, maybe we should consider the lab leak theory. Oh, maybe we should consider
03:58 Natural immunity. We never heard these messaging coming from you or from anyone else who stood on the sidelines
04:06 Talking about these things and it's left the American people with a tremendous distrust
04:11 I want to talk a little bit about the grant process my understanding from your testimony to us
04:16 It says that the NIH process for awarding grants is that basically research proposal goes to peer review committee to receive a priority score
04:24 Then it goes to an advisory council for NIH personnel
04:27 It receives a final basically the group votes on it and then eventually it ends up on your desk for signature
04:33 Right now you said in that that sometimes if I recall correctly
04:37 It's those grants are often approved in block in mass when they're voted on and then you sign off on them
04:44 That's correct. I this this is one of the things that's really troubling to the American people because they look at their lives being destroyed
04:51 and there's no one to hold accountable because these systems are of
04:55 Accountability have become systems of plausible deniability. And so your name is on every single grant
05:02 But yet you you absolve yourself of any sort of responsibility by saying well, you know, it goes to this committee. That's you know
05:09 That has a number of people on it and they're approved in block
05:14 And so there's no accountability for anything any of the taxpayer dollars that are going forth
05:18 I disagree with you congressman because if you look at the number of grants we fund thousands of grants
05:25 It would be physically impossible
05:27 For me to go through every single grant in a detailed way to understand it
05:32 That is true. Not only for me, but for virtually every Institute at the NIH
05:37 Then why does your signature go on it because somebody has to sign off on it and you trust the expertise and the competence?
05:44 Of the staff that go over what is the mechanism for only humans time is expired
05:49 And now recognize miss Ross