In March 2020, the two of us became intimately familiar with a new threat affecting our neighbors. COVID-19 had begun spreading in the Cincinnati area. We were quickly thrust into planning how our hospital and academic health system would respond to this new threat.
One of us worked tirelessly caring for sick people with COVID while the other focused on leading the research efforts to find treatments and preventions. As leaders in the Infectious Diseases Society of Ohio, we are appalled at Senator Bernie Moreno’s accusations and behavior during the July 29 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic.
What should have been a careful, reasoned interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci to help us understand what went wrong and what went right instead became a circus where senators, like Moreno, tried to earn political points by baselessly accusing Dr. Fauci of crimes.
Science under fire
Let’s set the record straight. There have been 3,944,906 Ohioans reported to have COVID-19, of whom 44,976 died since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 158,788 Ohioans were hospitalized. Working 12- to 16-hour days, 7 days a week, we tried to care for those initially affected by this new disease as we began coordinating health care system responses throughout Cincinnati and Ohio, while simultaneously opening research studies on COVID-19 treatment and prevention to save the lives of our neighbors.
We remember the many patients who did not survive and the countless stories of pain and suffering from families across Ohio as they lost loved ones. It had been nearly a century since the last pandemic, but countless health care workers and first responders stepped up across our state and our nation to face this unknown. We were driven by compassion and science to heal those affected and find answers. And we were there.
In every great crisis, some step up and lead, and others only criticize and pontificate. Science is not always perfect and straightforward. Science doesn’t get everything right immediately. Science is about taking the knowledge we have, applying it to our current circumstances, and studying ways to make it better. No one was an expert on COVID-19 when the pandemic began; we all learned day by day what was working and what wasn’t.
Dr. Fauci helped coordinate all of this data, coming in from every corner of the nation (and the world) as we all did our best to move forward. Dr Fauci is a respected scientist who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades − through the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and COVID-19 in the 2020s. His scientific leadership led to countless important discoveries that saved lives.
Learn from the pandemic
Make no mistake, the congressional committee’s investigation of Dr. Fauci is a direct attack on science. It is not a balanced review of what went right or wrong. When Sen. Moreno, between vulgarities, suggested that wearing masks, getting vaccinations, and using time-honored, proven public health measures to keep people safe during a time of contagion was wrong, we should all have asked: Where is your data, Sen. Moreno? We await the studies and citations.
Do questions remain about COVID-19? Of course; specifically, regarding how to balance the health and welfare of a nation while maintaining the basic functions of society like people working and children going to school.
Unfortunately, these were not the questions asked by our senator. Instead, we got cursing and conspiracy theories. At a time when gas prices are up, we are embroiled in a foreign war, and many people are living paycheck to paycheck, this is not how Ohioans want our senators using their time and tax dollars.
Stop using COVID-19 and Dr. Fauci for political gain.
Dr. Keith M. Luckett, of North Avondale, is president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ohio. Dr. Carl J. Fichtenbaum, of Clifton, is past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ohio.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: COVID-19 hearings should seek truth, not headlines | Opinion
Reporting by Keith M. Luckett and Carl J. Fichtenbaum, Opinion contributors / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Keith M. Luckett and Carl J. Fichtenbaum, Opinion contributors | USA TODAY Network
