If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

2020: The Year 'Expert' Credibility Died

A Commentary By Michelle Malkin

If there were ever a time to "question authority," as the old counterculture slogan of the 1960s urged, the authoritarian age of COVID-19 is that time. 2020 will go down in American history as the year that public health "experts" got everything wrong.

It's not just that their judgment was faulty. It's that time and again, the professional elites deceived the citizenry, derided other academics and medical professionals who challenged them and de-platformed outspoken dissidents who refused to obey them. These pathological liars are the true public health threat.

Exhibit A: Anthony Fauci.

The incurably smug director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases led the "Great Mask Hoax" in March 2020 when he told CBS News, "There's no reason to be walking around with a mask." He very explicitly characterized mask-wearing as a performative gesture that "might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is."

Months later, fact-doctorer Fauci performed a whiplash-inducing 180-degree turnaround and became the planet's No. 1 mask cheerleader. He rationalized that he needed to mislead the nation about the efficacy of masks in order "to save the masks for the people who really needed them because it was felt that there was a shortage of masks."

I don't know about you, but in my house, we call this sick behavior "covering your behind."

Last week, Fauci was at it again. After repeatedly asserting over the past year that 60-70% of Americans would need to submit to vaccine jabs to reach herd immunity, he cranked up the number to between 70-90% in an interview with The New York Times. Fauci confessed that he manipulated the numbers based on polling data about citizens' vaccine hesitancy:

"When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent ... Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, 'I can nudge this up a bit,' so I went to 80, 85. We need to have some humility here .... We really don't know what the real number is."

"We" need to have some humility? Speak for yourself, Dr. Gasbag!

Fauci further disclosed on CNN this weekend that his herd immunity pronouncement was nothing more than a "guesstimate."

I don't know about you, but in my house, we call this kind of prestidigitation "pulling things out of your behind."

Fauci's colleagues performed similar feats of scientific fraud, deception, misdirection and political propaganda.

The Erroneous Experts shut down playgrounds, ordered us to stop singing and dancing, and canceled Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas in the name of social distancing -- but gave the green light to Black Lives Matter marches, antifa protests and post-election celebrations by Joe Biden supporters.

The Erroneous Experts caused panic shortages of hand sanitizer and antiseptic wipes with unsupported claims that COVID-19 spread through surfaces.

The Erroneous Experts facilitated the suffering of countless patients by recklessly hooking them up to ventilators, turning their lungs to mush and forbidding their loved ones from comforting them as they lay dying unnecessary deaths -- while publicity-thirsty doctors and nurses went viral twerking for TikTok and Twitter.

The Erroneous Experts conducted online purges and witch hunts against naturopaths, chiropractors, independent investigative journalists, informed parents and frontline doctors who advocated vitamin D, zinc, sunshine, exercise, hydroxychloroquine or any other commonsense measures that did not involve lining the pockets of Big Pharma -- even as two-faced Fauci admitted he takes vitamins C and D to boost his immunity.

The Erroneous Experts stoked widespread fear of "asymptomatic transmission" of COVID-19, forcing catastrophic lockdowns of healthy people around the globe. But as a new British Medical Journal article acknowledges: "(W)e know very little about the proportions of people with positive results who are truly asymptomatic throughout the course of their infection." About half of people classified as "asymptomatic" go on to develop symptoms. Contrary to the impression Erroneous Experts have left the public with, they have no idea to what extent people with no symptoms transmit the virus to others.

Moreover, the BMJ article makes clear: "No test of infection or infectiousness is currently available for routine use. As things stand, a person who tests positive with any kind of test may or may not have an active infection with live virus, and may or may not be infectious."

So, the COVID-19 tests are unreliable as we hurtle toward mandatory, universal testing, tracking and tracing. And, as I reported in my three-part series on the clinical trials, the COVID vaccines are neither safe nor effective by any honest measure. Indeed, the World Health Organization's chief scientists admitted Monday what I pointed out last month:

"I don't believe we have the evidence on any of the vaccines to be confident that it's going to prevent people from actually getting the infection and therefore being able to pass it on," Dr. Soumya Swaminathan stated.

The "believe science" cult of Erroneous Experts is the epitome of anti-scientific thought. May 2021 be the year of resistance and the death knell for COVID control freakism.

Michelle Malkin's email address is [email protected]. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM

See Other Political Commentaries.

See Other Commentaries by Michelle Malkin.

Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports. Comments about this content should be directed to the author or syndicate.

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.