See also: What did Dr. Fauci have to say in 2009 about the deadly H1N1 pandemic?

The fierce and urgent state-by-state reaction to the coronavirus by governors, mayors, school districts and most importantly, health experts employed by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, has drawn comparisons to past pandemics and America's response to them.

Dr Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has been the country's go-to immunologist during several high-profile viral outbreaks. After recent press conferences with President Trump and Vice-President Pence, Dr Fauci has been labeled a "public health hero" and "truth teller" by the mainstream press. No doubt he has an impressive resume and is one smart man. But, like most Americans, he has political views and as much as we want to trust our public health monitors to put politics aside when it comes to national health crises, we must always be willing, in President Reagan's words, to "verify."

The recent surfacing of 2013 emails in which Dr Fauci professes his admiration and  “love" for Hillary Clinton along with his wife's 2010 appointment to Barack Obama's Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues certainly suggests Dr Fauci is partial to the Democratic Party.  Dr. Christine Grady, Fauci's spouse, held her position as commissioner until Obama left office in 2017.

In normal times, none of this is particularly surprising. But, in the age of Trump, with the palpable hatred of our President emanating from all sectors of the globe, including our politicians in DC, we are obliged to ask Dr. Fauci why he did not urge state and national leaders to prevent children, who were at high risk of getting the swine flu, from returning to school in September, 2009.

In a December 29, 2009 C-SPAN interview, Fauci admits "children are dying" but still calls H1NI “mild and moderate." He admits there is a shortage of vaccines and more will not be available until mid-October. Fauci does not recommend school closings. Instead, he calls it a "glitch in the preparation." There was "a gap,” he states, in the supply of vaccines "particularly when the children came back to school at the end of August, in September." As they returned to school, Fauci says a "second wave" of H1N1 came back. In all, 100 children in the U.S. died from the swine flu. The gap didn't close until December. How many children became infected and died during this period?

C-SPAN screen grab

From C-SPAN:

H1NI finally ran its course in April 2010. On April 7, 2010 Obama announced his appointment of Dr Grady, then the head of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, to his Bioethics Commission.

 Did Dr. Fauci downplay H1N1 in 2009 because of his political affiliations?

More than a decade later, many in the media have taken notice of Fauci's behavior toward President Trump during his daily updates on the coronavirus. The Daily Mail, hardly a conservative publication, noted Fauci's "eye-rolling, " smirking" and "face-palming” reactions to Trump’s remarks. Snide political gestures and conjecture aside, Dr Fauci failed to stop susceptible children from returning to school in 2009 knowing there was a shortage of vaccines and knowing H1NI infections were increasing during the summer months.