It Isn’t Fauci’s Fault But He’s Part of the Problem
“Follow the science” is what scientists do. For public officials, it’s not that simple.
The less said, the better.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/AFP/Getty Images
The dysfunction in President Donald Trump’s relationship with Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is largely Trump’s fault. But Trump’s reckless and counterproductive behavior is not the only reason for tension between the two officials. There’s an inbuilt tension between our form of government and expertise, one that has been inflamed not only by Trump but by our society’s confusion about science.
Trump’s tirades against underlings have always been more comprehensible as expressions of frustration and rage than of political strategy, and so it is in the case of Fauci. Trump is in the closing weeks of an election that the polls have him losing to Joe Biden.