Anthony Fauci admitted to Congress on Monday there is no scientific evidence to support the Covid-era “social distancing” rules he advocated for when he was the federal government’s top infectious disease expert.
It marks the second time the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director admitted to a lack of scientific data that would justify the drastic stay-home orders implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When pressed on the effectiveness of social distancing mandates in this week’s congressional hearing, Fauci stated, “There was no clinical trial that proved that. That’s just one of the things that got a little distorted.”
This comes after Fauci’s January interview transcript with the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic was released, in which he admitted to championing “social distancing” without any data to support it as effective in stopping the spread of the virus. “It sort of just appeared,” Fauci said when asked about the social distancing guidelines. He added, “It sort of just appeared, that 6 feet is going to be the distance.”
At a White House Press Briefing in April 2020, Fauci claimed, “Viruses transmit from people to people. When people are separated from each other, virus does not transmit; it doesn’t go anywhere…. Every aspect of that, ending the Covid outbreak in 30 days, has some aspect of it of physical separation — whether that’s avoiding crowds, whether that’s staying six feet away from people …”
Fauci continued the unscientific claim in July 2020, saying, “Transmission is respiratory route direct person to person, usually in close contact, which is the reason why we ask that people maintain a six-foot distance.”
Scott Jensen, a physician and former Republican state senator from Minnesota, said on X, “I was vilified, investigated, and persecuted because I had the audacity to say the 6 foot distancing rule was not based on prevailing science.”
Dr. Fauci was widely regarded by Democrats and the media as the embodiment of science. Those who disagreed with him were “really criticizing science because I represent science,” he said in an interview in November 2021.
