The Senate Covid-19 Hearing Makes Clear That Public Health is the Government’s Mistress

A particular exchange between Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, underlines the faulty thinking surrounding the relationship between governance and public health:

Senator Paul: As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don’t think you’re the end-all. I don’t think you’re the one person who gets to make a decision. We can listen to your advice, but there are people on the other side saying there is not going to be a surge and that we can safely open the economy, and the facts will bear this out.

Dr. Fauci: I have never made myself out to be the end-all and only voice in this. I’m a scientist, a physician, and a public health official. I give advice according to the best scientific evidence […] I don’t give advice about economic things. I don’t give advice about anything other than public health.

Two lines from Dr. Fauci’s response bears repeating: “I’m a scientist, a physician, and a public health official,” and “I don’t give advice about anything other than public health.”

Senator Paul, far from being humble, attacked a public health official for doing his job: advising policymakers on facts related to this pandemic. He wants Dr. Fauci and…