Verification of Facts Attacks by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick against Dr. Fauci

07/02/2020 USA


Specifically, Patrick disagreed with Fauci’s comments earlier in the day during a Senate hearing, when he suggested that some states had reopened too quickly and omitted some guidelines in the process.

Texas was one of the first states to begin reopening in early May, but Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently reversed course after an increase in coronavirus cases.
In defending Texas’ reopening strategy, Patrick said, “Fauci said today that he is concerned about states like Texas that omitted certain things.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, we haven’t missed anything,” Patrick continued. “The only thing I skip is listening to it.” Patrick also erroneously claimed that Fauci “has been wrong every time about every issue” in the coronavirus pandemic.

Facts First: According to the available data, Patrick is wrong to suggest that Texas skipped nothing when he decided to reopen. When Texas reopened on May 1, the state disagreed with the criteria outlined by the White House coronavirus task force. It is also absurd to suggest that Fauci was wrong on every issue.

During the Senate hearing, Fauci called Texas along with three other states that are now hot spots for outbreaks. “As you know, in four of the states, in Florida, Texas, California and Arizona, more than 50% of new infections are in those areas where we are seeing surges,” Fauci testified.

Fauci then said that “maybe” some states “were going too fast and skipping some of the checkpoints” set by White House guidelines for reopening.

“When states begin to attempt to reopen, they must follow the guidelines that have been established very carefully with respect to checkpoints,” Fauci said in the hearing. “What we’ve seen in various states are different iterations of that. Maybe in some, going too fast and skipping some of the checkpoints.”

Texas was one of the first states to begin the reopening process, allowing the stay-at-home order to expire and retail stores, theaters, restaurants and other businesses to reopen to 25% of capacity.

It was also a reopening of most states that did so before it met all White House guidelines, according to an analysis by the New York Times.
White House-recommended states have a “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period” before reopening. But Texas and 17 other states actually had a daily average case increase in the two weeks before they planned to open, according to the New York Times.

The White House guidelines also say that “State and local officials may need to tailor the application of these criteria to local circumstances,” so Texas may have complied with the White House guidelines after taking into account the mitigating factors.

Throughout the pandemic, Patrick has been a fierce advocate for the reopening of the Texas economy and has been ridiculed after suggesting that the United States economy was “more important” than living.

“There are more important things to live. And that is saving this country for my children and my grandchildren,” he told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson shortly before Texas reopened. “And save this country for all of us. And I don’t want to die. No one wants to die. But man, we have to take some risks.”

Fauci has been a constant voice of caution in the administration’s Coronavirus Task Force, and has a decades-long history of precision in infectious diseases. During the pandemic, she urged people to wear masks, wash their hands regularly, and practice social distancing.

In May, Fauci warned that states opening too soon could see “little spikes turning into outbreaks”, and that “the consequences could be really serious.”
Fauci incorrectly suggested on April 9 that the final death toll “is more like 60,000 than 100,000 to 200,000.” However, that was based on a study at the time, and as Fauci continually points out, “the models are as good as the assumptions” inserted at the time.

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