Conservatives are freaking out over the idea of letting Dr Anthony Fauci “off the hook” after an economist called for a “pandemic amnesty” in an op-ed for The Atlantic.
The director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases has become a boogeyman for many on the right as Republicans attacked Dr Fauci to woo Trump supporters, according to The New York Times.
“Given the amount of uncertainty, almost every position was taken on every topic,” Brown University economist Emily Closter wrote about the early days of the pandemic. “And on every topic, someone was eventually proved right, and someone else was proved wrong..”
“In the face of so much uncertainty, getting something right had a hefty element of luck. And, similarly, getting something wrong wasn’t a moral failing,” she added.
“We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty,” Ms Closter wrote.
Conservatives reacted with fury at the idea.
“And let Fauci off the hook? No way,” Ohio Representative Jim Jordan tweeted in response.
Monica Crowley, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Trump administration, tweeted, “HELL NO. Accountability is coming. Soon.”
Radio host Erick Erickson wrote that “I started the pandemic giving the experts the benefit of the doubt. I embraced the vaccine (not all the boosters). There doesn’t need to be amnesty, but accountability for what experts over time got wrong and dogmatically used the press to censor dissent”.
“Absolutely no Amnesty,” Dave Rubin wrote. “Some of us did not lose our minds, did not force vaccines or lockdowns, and instead fought for freedom the entire time.”
“It’s one thing to have gotten some things wrong over the past few years, it’s another to have led the charge to destroy human freedom,” he added.
“Amnesty??? Nah. How about mass public trials for the ‘experts’, Fauci, Daszak, big corporate bosses, and even task force chief Mike Pence?” Raheem Kassam tweeted.
“They made you cancel funerals and say goodbye to loved ones over Skype,” Texas Representative Troy Nehls wrote. “No pandemic amnesty. Accountability is coming.”
Several studies have shown that more Republicans die from Covid-19 compared to Democrats, who are more likely to listen to the advice of public health officials.
“Skepticism toward vaccines is the top response among Republicans, and mentions of distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and government officials are also relatively frequent,” the Pew Research Center said regarding a study released on 6 September.
The National Bureau of Economic Research released a working paper in that same month which revealed that average excess death rates in Ohio and Florida were 76 per cent higher among GOP voters compared to their Democratic counterparts.
Excess death rates are deaths above the level that would be expected based on historical data.
Health Affairs published a study in June showing that counties where Republicans were in the majority had a larger share of deaths from Covid through October last year compared to counties where more people identified as Democrats.
The assistant professor of health policy at the Yale School of Public Health, Jacob Wallace, told NBC News that vaccine hesitancy could be the top reason for the gap.
“In counties where a large share of the population is getting vaccinated, we see a much smaller gap between Republicans and Democrats,” he said.
The working paper found that the partisan gap expanded between April and December of last year when the vaccine became available to all adults.
During this period, excess deaths in Florida and Ohio were 153 per cent higher among GOP supporters compared to Democrats.
“We really don’t see a big divide until after vaccines became widely available in our two states,” Dr Wallace told NBC News.
The study released in June put a larger emphasis on the role of social distancing and masking.
Assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, Neil Jay Sehgal, told NBC News that “vaccination does play a role in the difference that we’ve observed in excess mortality between red and blue places, but it is not the whole story”.
“When you have less transmission, you have fewer cases and you have less mortality. And you have less transmission in general by instituting protective policies like mask requirements when we had them, or capacity limits in businesses,” he said.
