Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted in a recently published research paper that COVID-19 vaccines could not have been reasonably expected to get the pandemic under control.
Fauci and other top government and healthcare officials repeatedly stressed during the pandemic that getting vaccinated would stop the spread of COVID-19 and was the most important step individuals could take to end the pandemic. However, in the paper published Jan. 11 in Cell Press, Fauci and two co-authors write that respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and the flu have never been well-contained by vaccines.
You gotta be kidding me—Anthony Fauci just published an article pointing out viruses that replicate in mucosal passages cannot be effectively controlled by vaccines that create systemic immunity? After 3 years he just announces this obvious point? https://t.co/nso7g1szHY
— Todd Zywicki (@ToddZywicki) February 6, 2023
“Because these viruses generally do not elicit complete and durable protective immunity by themselves, they have not to date been effectively controlled by licensed or experimental vaccines,” Fauci and his co-authors, David Morens and Jeffrey Taubenberger of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), wrote in the paper.
The analysis, titled “Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenza viruses, and other respiratory viruses,” highlights shortcomings in current vaccine technology for respiratory viruses and speculates on how it might be improved going forward. The authors compare SARS-CoV-2 to influenza, for which they say “only less than suboptimal vaccines” exist.
Vaccine technology for influenza has not evolved much since 1957, they said, leading to influenza being the deadliest vaccine-preventable viral respiratory disease. Flu shots have only been between 14 and 60 percent effective at stopping infection over the past 15 flu seasons, according to the paper.
Notably, Fauci et. al. appear to argue that, if natural immunity alone is insufficient to prevent reinfection with respiratory viruses, then there is little hope for existing vaccines to prevent it: “This observation raises a question of fundamental importance: if natural mucosal respiratory virus infections do not elicit complete and long-term protective immunity against reinfection, how can we expect vaccines, especially systemically administered non-replicating vaccines, to do so?”
These observations differ drastically from the rhetoric Fauci used while serving as President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and the director of NIAID. In Sept. 2021, even while recommending that all eligible Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19, he was unable to explain why those with natural immunity should do so.
In May 2021, Fauci said vaccinated individuals were “dead ends” for the virus, a sentiment echoed by other members of the Biden administration, including the president himself. Regarding COVID-19 mandate policies, Fauci endorsed “anything that will get more people vaccinated.” (RELATED: What’s ‘The Science’ For Why Vaccinated Americans Shouldn’t Travel? Fauci Can’t Find An Answer)
Fauci and his co-authors go on to note that different vaccines have different objectives. Unlike others that may be aimed at preventing infection entirely or at preventing transmission, the COVID-19 vaccines were meant for “only preventing severe disease,” they wrote.
The authors conclude that “Past unsuccessful attempts to elicit solid protection” against these viruses is a “scientific and public health failure,” but that they are excited by attempts by researchers to rethink the process “from the ground up” going forward.
