(Photo: CGTN)
Less than two months after criticizing the US' COVID-19 testing system on a public hearing, health official Anthony Fauci has been blocked from testifying before the House Appropriations Committee next week.
"While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings," the White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere explained Fauci's absence.
But apparently, this explanation is not convincing. The move is widely believed as an attempt to silence Fauci. This key member of Trump's COVID-19 task force has contradicted the president's rhetoric for several times.
Earlier, Trump claimed chloroquine had shown "very encouraging early results" in containing the virus and would be rolled out to patients "almost immediately." But Fauci offered starkly different views a day after. Asked whether there was evidence to support chloroquine treatment, Fauci was straightforward, "The answer is no. And the evidence… is anecdotal evidence."
The expert having advised six successive presidents is not hesitant in lashing out at the country's COVID-19 testing system. "The system is not really geared to what we need right now… That is failing," Fauci made the remarks during a March 12 House hearing.
The health expert shows no intention of holding back his criticisms on his boss's slow response to the pandemic. In an interview with CNN, Fauci indicated that earlier COVID-19 mitigation efforts would have saved more Americans. "If we had, right from the beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different," Fauci said.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the US President, in a bid to win November's election, has been sparing no effort in pacifying anxious Americans. This is why there have been constant voices criticizing Trump for downplaying the virus and making contradictory speeches on the pandemic.
But Fauci, despite being a member of Trump's COVID-19 task force, has been acting honestly on the real situation in the United States. A poll by Morning Consult suggests that Fauci ranked the top (76 percent) as the public's preferred source of COVID-19 information. That is far above Donald Trump (45 percent).
Therefore, blocking Fauci from next week's hearing is more about silencing him than the White House' official explanation. Senator Chris Van Hollen is outright in saying that the Trump administration is imposing a "gag order" on Fauci. "He (Trump) doesn't want the public to hear the full truth, like 'don't inject disinfectants' or 'we need more rapid testing,'" USA Today quoted the Senator as saying.
The United States has been actively accusing others of covering up real COVID-19 data. But it turns out the world's superpower is more active in distancing itself from criticisms on anti-virus failure. The Tampa Bay Times reported this week that "state officials have stopped releasing the list of COVID-19 deaths being compiled by Florida's medical examiners, as the death toll on the list was 10 percent higher than the official figure.
There are also reports that a 16-year-old girl, Amyiah Cohoon, was threatened by the local sheriff with "arrest or prosecution" for not taking down Instagram posts about what she believed was her COVID-19 experiences.
In the global fight against the pandemic, transparency is of vital importance. The United States is now leading the world in both confirmed COVID-19 cases and the death toll. Any attempt to cover up the real picture will only raise, not lower, the public's anxiety level, and impede the global anti-virus efforts.
Lives carry much more weight than politics and economics. Protecting citizens' lives is why the governments, despite their various forms, were established in the first place. The Trump administration should understand this simple fact before blocking Fauci from the public hearing.