Anthony Fauci: Dr. Wrong

Stephen Moore on Jul 28, 2026

Poor Anthony Fauci -- the man who became an overnight celebrity when deadly COVID-19 hit these shores. As time has gone on, and the catastrophic consequences of Fauci's advice have become more apparent, Fauci's hero status has faded. And now with the publication of his "diaries" during the COVID-19 year of 2020, it looks as though this megalomaniac should be sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on.

We now know that much of what Fauci and the government health complex was telling us about the virus was meant to scare the living daylights out of Americans. Much of it was false or misleading. I and my team at Unleash Prosperity fought tooth and nail against lockdowns from day one -- even as too many conservative groups supported what we now know was one of the most catastrophic mistakes in American history. The losses in education alone will cost the economy trillions of dollars in the decades ahead.

So, I was honored to learn that in Fauci's diary entries from the early summer of 2020, I was singled out as a threat to his schemes. In a call to the White House, Fauci writes, he urged that President Donald Trump "shut up Stephen Moore and stop his publication of 'Dr. Wrong' paper."

In an Oval Office meeting in April of 2020, I helped persuade Trump to get the economy up and running again ASAP, which horrified Fauci and the media, which had fawningly approved of his disastrous shutdown of schools, businesses, stores, parks and churches. His advice was to keep the economy shut down for nearly a year!

But Fauci's attempt to muzzle me failed. I DID publish the now-famous "Dr. Wrong" memo. And it may have played a small role in getting the economy reopened -- especially in red states like Florida and Texas.

I also recounted that Fauci had spent most of his 35-year career in infectious diseases falsely warning of apocalyptic scenarios that never happened. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail to be pounded.

In the 1980s he was wrong about heterosexual AIDS. In the early 2000s he was wrong about the avian flu. Same with the Zika virus. Not only did he overestimate death rates from virtually every virus of the last 30 years, he often overestimated fatalities by five to 10 times the actual numbers. A palm reader would have been more accurate.

Why anyone ever listened to Fauci the fraudster is a great mystery. What's worse is that even though we know he caused irreparable damage to the health and well-being of our children, he is still in some circles regarded as a hero. He still gives commencement addresses at major universities. The Biden administration actually hung a portrait of a smiling Fauci near the entrance of the National Portrait Gallery. One wonders if the museum also has a portrait of Benedict Arnold.

But what is now clear for all to see is that Fauci was and is Dr. Wrong. Never again should we allow politicians and mad scientists to shut down our mighty economy.

Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.