WASHINGTON — America’s in the midst of its worst measles outbreak in 35 years, but you wouldn’t know that from watching Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee rip into Dr. Anthony Fauci Wednesday over America’s COVID response.
“You lied to hundreds of millions of people amid the worst public health crisis in a century,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Fauci. “You forced people to watch their loved ones die alone over the phone.”
“Who the f--- do you think you were for doing that?” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) asked Fauci. “It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.”
“You were so focused on getting every award and every drop of cash that you could,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Fauci. “All because you wanted to be on TV, you wanted to be the sun god of science.”
To Democrats, the Republican rhetoric is the problem as it slowly undermines Americans’ trust in vaccines and medical expertise.
“There's an undermining of science,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) told Raw Story. “It's sowing distrust in public servants and scientists and researchers and medical professionals.”
On the right, Republicans seem as afraid of their constituents as they are angry at Fauci.
Republican rhetoric is far from the problem, according to Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chair Rand Paul (R-KY), who’s threatening to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times.
“Do you worry at all that bringing up all the COVID vaccine [criticisms] that it could increase skepticism in the measles vaccine and others?” Raw Story asked.
“No,” Paul told Raw Story after the hearing. “I think, really, a lot of the hesitancy on getting vaccinated is when people are told something that's dishonest.”
Paul, a Duke-trained ophthalmologist, says Republican fearmongering on C-SPAN isn’t the problem. Fauci is.
“If they tell you your six-month-old needs to get a COVID vaccine, and yet you've seen all the evidence that healthy six-month-olds don't die from COVID and then you've seen evidence that some young people that are healthy get a heart inflammation, myocarditis,” Paul continued. “You're thinking, ‘well, gosh, if they're telling me that my six-month-old needs it, maybe they're lying to me about the other vaccine.’”
Fauci served under both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, but Paul lays blame for today’s historic measles outbreak solely at the feet of those on the left.
“So I think they have caused the vaccine hesitancy through dishonesty,” Paul told Raw Story. “I'm out there saying that the COVID vaccine should be given to those who are at risk, and that's really kind of where it's shifted now.”
While America hasn’t endured a measles outbreak of this magnitude since 1991, Senate Republicans are acting as if it’s medical business as usual.
“I don't know anything about measles,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) told Raw Story.
“Are you worried with all this rhetoric that's influencing people taking or not taking the measles vaccine?” Raw Story asked Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).
“I hadn't really thought about it like that,” Capito told Raw Story.
“What do you tell constituents if they call and ask about the measles vaccine?” Raw Story asked Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
“No one does,” Scott told Raw Story. “There wasn't a vaccine when I was growing up. We intentionally got measles. If one person in the neighborhood got measles, we all got measles intentionally. The same with mumps and chickenpox. So I had all that stuff as a kid.”
Still, Scott isn’t promoting herd immunity as the solution.
“Are you worried about how many people are afraid of those vaccines?” Raw Story pressed.
“Oh, yeah,” Scott continued. “But the other side of it, I think the positive is, if you like, if you talk to [Health and Human Services Secretary] Bobby Kennedy. You know, he's not anti-vaccine. He's giving you good information.”
Many medical experts disagree.
Still, other Republicans admit they avoid giving their constituents vaccine information these days.
“If people call your office now and ask you about it, do you send them to a certain website?” Raw Story pressed. “Or do you just listen to them?”
“Just listen. A lot of people are skeptical from a lot of different avenues. Everyone has to make the decisions that are right for their own family,” Ernst said. “I believe in vaccinations, especially something that has been proven over time — like the measles [vaccine] — but that's me. It's my personal preference. Every family, like I said, has to make their own decision.”
“Is there a role for the government in combating some of this measles skepticism or vaccine skepticism?” Raw Story pressed. “Or does the government mess it up?”
“We have to tread very carefully in that arena when telling individuals what they should and shouldn't do,” Ernst said.
“And that's because of Fauci?” Raw Story asked.
“Yeah,” Ernst said. “So we're in a really difficult time right now. And our citizens will have to figure out a way to — actually, let's put the impetus on the federal government: We're going to have to earn the people's trust.”
