Fauci tells MSNBC that the number of hospitalizations from COVID have been inflated. Is his admission two years into the pandemic politically motivated?
Speaking to MSNBC, Fauci admits that “if you look at the children that are hospitalized, many of them are hospitalized with COVID, as opposed to because of COVID.”
The reason is that COVID cases include anyone admitted who tests positive rather than people that are admitted because of symptoms associated with COVID.
As Fauci explains, if you are admitted with a broken leg and you test positive upon admission, then you are counted toward the total number of hospitalizations with COVID.
Sound familiar? Well, yes. This is what those on the right have been saying all along.
Though Fauci makes this admission with respect to children, the math is the same with adults. That is, hospitalization data inflates—likely wildly inflates—the number of people that are hospitalized because of COVID.
So why is Fauci attempting to change the narrative now.
Consider the following:
Inflating the numbers was politically useful at the beginning of the pandemic while Trump was in office. It amped up the level of fear in the general public.
Big numbers for hospitalizations and deaths allowed Joe Biden and the Democrats to bludgeon Trump during the 2020 campaign.
Inflating the numbers also increased the power of Fauci and the CDC as politicians of all stripes were willing to do give then whatever they asked for.
Big numbers also benefitted the Democrats early in 2021 as the panic helped them ram through a $1.9 trillion spending bill that in fact had very little to do with the pandemic.
But not big numbers are hurting the Democrats. Big numbers suggest that Biden has failed to stem the pandemic as he had promised.
So the solution is to change the way the numbers are counted. In this, case, to count hospitalizations and deaths the way that they should have been counted all along.
Watch for more attempts by Fauci and the Democrats to walk back the numbers.
Changing the way things are counted to fit political purposes is nothing new to politicians. Why should the COVID numbers be any different?