There’s one word that has been spoken more than any other throughout this pandemic: science. Since we’ve been led to believe that no one can understand how this disease works except the “experts” at the Centers for Disease Control, the public has been mostly content to trust them to interpret the science properly and inform us on how to proceed. The king of science is Dr. Anthony Fauci. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Fauci’s star has gone up and up to the point that he is adored by every A-list celebrity and many Americans. So much so that a professor at Baylor College of Medicine recently suggested that criticizing Fauci should be a federal hate crime.
Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology, wrote recently in a paper titled “Mounting antiscience aggression in the United States” that “a band of ultraconservative members of the US Congress and other public officials with far-right leanings are waging organized and seemingly well-coordinated attacks against prominent US biological scientists.”
Hotez goes on to say that the government needs to consider ways to protect scientists who could be at risk from these far-right extremists, including giving them federal hate-crime protections.
If the worship of Fauci and science wasn’t out of hand before, it is now. Up until now, the infatuation could be labeled as just plain ridiculous and creepy. It might even have bordered on fanatical. Now it’s safe to say the fascination has crossed that border.
Scientists are not perfect by any means. They are susceptible to human error just as everyone else is because they are nothing more than humans themselves. To treat Fauci and other scientists as if they’re beyond reproach is to put them above being human, and we’ve all seen over the last year that this is definitely not the case. With as many times as Fauci has been wrong about COVID, it’s astounding how anyone with a shred of sanity can still be defending him.
Because Fauci is only human, he is allowed to be wrong. But when he is wrong, he needs to admit it and not continue to defend his ridiculous claims or flip his stance and act as though he has always been consistent. What he doesn’t need is to be shielded even more from criticism by hate crime protections. Barring any kind of disapproval seeks to portray Fauci and the scientists as the only ones who have the answers. In reality, it just makes them appear insecure and lacking the emotional capacity to deal with dissenting viewpoints.
Dr. Hotez and others like him are part of a movement of people who are putting everything Fauci and the “experts” say ahead of common sense. What they are adhering to is not science. Science deals with researching and finding conclusions based on data and evidence. But with COVID, these scientists are ignoring the data in favor of pushing political agendas.
To them, it doesn’t matter that COVID is not as harmful to the population as it was when it first arrived. It doesn’t matter that a large part of the country has either had COVID, been exposed to someone with COVID, or been vaccinated. All that matters is that scientism continues to spread fear of the virus throughout the country.
Yes, the choices we make influence others and we should look out for one another. But we can’t ignore the methods of staying healthy that have always worked, in favor of ones not based in science just because Fauci demands them. This cult of science worshippers has forgotten that Fauci is not the sole arbiter of health decisions. Until the country wakes up and says “Enough!” Fauci and his cohorts will continue to push the boundaries of “science” and people like Dr. Peter Hotez will fight for it.
Sydney Fowler
Sydney Fowler is a junior communications major with minors in political science and marketing at Anderson University (SC). She is passionate about restoring conservative values to Washington and hopes to work in political public relations in the future. When not busy with academics or a side writing project, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, and listening to either 80s rock or podcasts like the Ben Shapiro Show.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
