Editor’s Note: The piece below was written by USA Today Commentary Editor, Blake Fontenay. Blake was formerly an editor with the Commercial Appeal and has held several other journalism roles in Florida, Colorado, and California. Blake is also an author of three published novels.
I had planned to share my thoughts about the Fauci hearings, but after reading Blake’s column, I saw that he expressed everything I wanted to say, and more. You can read his columns at USA Today and follow him on Facebook.
So we're doing this again.
That was my immediate reaction when I learned Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary was being released ahead of his appearance before a U.S. Senate committee. As I read some of the early reports from that Senate hearing, it seems clear the purpose was to attack Fauci's character rather than try to learn anything meaningful from the COVID-19 pandemic that could help us in the future.
Let me be clear: I'm not trying to defend Fauci as a person. I don't know him any more than most of his critics do. Maybe the career bureaucrat did enjoy some of the celebrity he achieved as the public face of a federal government agency during a health crisis that ultimately cost more than 7 million people worldwide their lives.
He and others in charge most certainly made mistakes in response to a pandemic that no one of our generation had ever lived through before.
Here's what I believe, though: Those steps that government officials recommended and in some cases mandated – masks, social distancing, business and school closures – helped slow the spread of the disease so hospitals and other health care providers wouldn't be overwhelmed.
Even then, reasonable people understood the precautionary measures put in place weren't going to stop COVID's spread. The goal all along was to try to contain it.
Fauci's decisions are a major reason I survived COVID-19
As someone who ended up taking the last available spot in an intensive care unit at a small Colorado hospital, that matters to me. I'm still alive today because of decisions that were made back then.
And it infuriates me that some people still want to use what happened as a political talking point. I don't care if you love President Donald Trump or if you hate him. Trump, much like John Kerry's complicated feelings on the Vietnam War in a different time, was with Fauci before he was against him.
The truth was, much of what people were doing back then was trial and error, subject to recalculations and revisions in real time. It's easy to Monday-morning quarterback with the benefit of six years of hindsight about what did and didn't work.
I remember that while I was in the ICU, I was told one of the drugs being given to me was remdesivir, which I recognized as having been used to treat Trump's case of COVID-19.
"Isn't that an experimental drug?" I asked weakly.
"Everything we're giving you is experimental," was the reply.
In those pre-vaccine days, you could take your chances with what seemed like the most reasonable treatment regimen, or you could wait around to see if you would die.
About that 'culling the herd' argument
Over the years, I've heard people suggest, if not say outright, that COVID-19 was a disease that mainly killed the very old and sick – people who were going to die soon, anyway.
Not only does that view not tell the whole truth, but it's also offensive.
I had no underlying health issues. I'm old, but not that old. While I've made my share of dubious lifestyle choices, I've also spent a good chunk of my life as a competitive canoe and dragon boat racer.
Even today, I can kayak 10 miles in Florida heat that would make many of the keyboard commandos who make that culling-the-herd argument wilt
I was just one of the unlucky people whom COVID-19 struck particularly hard. Some might say that because it had a relatively high survivability rate, it wasn't that big of a deal.
I would submit to you that the people who think this way have never been awakened in the middle of the night to be packed in ice because their fever was spiking to critical levels. Or spent days tethered to oxygen tubes because removing those tubes left them gasping for air like fish out of water.
Yes, I survived COVID-19, but I wouldn't wish what I went through on my worst enemy.
If you never got COVID-19 or only had a mild case, then bless your privileged keister. You should thank God you never had to fight the battles many of us faced during those days.
Someone you know may have lost a grandparent, parent or other loved one to the coronavirus. Turning COVID-19 into another culture war political battle – like casting decisions made for "The Odyssey" – trivializes their suffering. And mine.
I do and will continue to take it personally.
Yes, COVID-19 precautions were inconvenient. So what?
Yes, I know the mask mandates, closures and other restrictions were inconvenient. I was inconvenienced, too. I didn't want to sit around eating Nutty Buddies or watching Korean baseball games for weeks on end, but that was the hand history dealt us.
More than a century ago, the world had to simultaneously deal with the twin calamities of the 1918-19 flu pandemic and World War I. Our ancestors were accustomed to making sacrifices and dealing with hardships. They didn't believe they were entitled to easy lives.
By contrast, we're soft. If our daily routines get altered in even the slightest ways, we're upset.
And who are we kidding? COVID-19 only supersized a cultural trend toward self-isolation that was already happening, anyway.
Sure, there were people who experienced genuine hardships as a result of school and business shutdowns. I was one of those people, too.
Within weeks after the pandemic began, I was laid off from my job at a Colorado newspaper due to declining advertising revenues. The New York Times Magazine wrote what at the time seemed like my journalism career obituary.
I had to go out and find another job at a time when the whole world seemed to be in sleep mode. It wasn't easy, but I did it.
Was Fauci a ham who enjoyed the limelight a little too much? There seems to be a lot of that going around, not only in politics but in our celebrity-obsessed culture in general. Does impeaching Fauci's character now accomplish anything meaningful? It does not.