August 3, 2026 — The Fauci Effect: Political Theater Actors
Check out this week’s blog post by IP attorney, author Timothy Trainer, host of the podcast and video show Tim’s Travails • Follow Tim on Substack
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It’s difficult to understand what all the GOP politicians are mad about. Last week’s hearing on Capitol Hill gives them more time in front of the spotlight, more air-time in front of television cameras, phone cameras and whatever other device can capture this new “outrage”. Of course, this new round exposes their anti-science, anti-common-sense approach to try and save lives. Did they want more people to die from covid? Did they want those who contracted covid to suffer longer? Did they want people to be hospitalized longer? The only thing that seems clear is that it’s a great diversion from a fellow GOP congressman fighting his sexual abuse allegations from an ex-wife or the U.S.-Iran war or how tariffs are raising prices on everyday U.S. consumers.
GOP elected officials are upset that Fauci invoked the 5th Amendment during last week’s hearing. Actually, the amendment is there for a reason and we all (should) know that the felon in the White House invoked it over 400 times during a deposition. Trump invokes Fifth Amendment nearly 450 times in N.Y. AG’s civil probe of his business practices. Given the GOP political class’s embrace of the felon who deftly used and relied on the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination, it’s surprising that Fauci isn’t receiving a medal from the GOP for having learned something from their cult leader and felon.
In the aftermath of last week’s hearing, it becomes apparent that many GOP politicians always wanted to be actors. They are now perfecting political theater to grandstand to make their statements in the hopes of headlines. Over the weekend, it was announced that “Louisiana will join Alabama & Florida in investigating Fauci and whether he committed any other offenses that could be pursued in our State courts.” Louisiana AG Liz Murrill to investigate Dr. Anthony Fauci following Senate hearing. Other offenses? What offenses has he already committed? Exercising a constitutional right is NOT an offense. These same people have no outrage toward their cult leader who took the fifth 400+ times.
But let’s move on. Some of the basic initial responses to covid: distancing and masks that so many opposed were some of the most basic common-sense recommendations. Over 100 years ago, with the Spanish flu and other illnesses that rampaged through the population, public health officials recommended basic steps to combat disease. “In the military camps, soldiers were instructed to eat five feet apart in the mess halls. Head to foot sleeping was also implemented to reduce the sharing of air space.” The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Response. Maybe, the public health folks were on to something.
The U.S.’s entry into World War I provided health officials with a unique opportunity to observe and react to illnesses when thousands of people were suddenly crammed into small spaces. It also provided health officials opportunities to test and develop new practices. “Respiratory disease is a major medical problem for military personnel living in close quarters. Crowded conditions are often found at military training barracks, classrooms, dining facilities, tent cities, and deployment staging areas.” https://ph.health.mil/resources/Barracks%20Layout%20Jan%202010.pdf.
The more one looks at what the public health community has learned from examining practices in the military, the more it becomes obvious that today’s political actors don’t want to understand what has been observed and learned. “To minimize disease agent transmissions, the normal sleeping space allowance for persons in basic training is prescribed at not less than 72 square feet of floor space per person . . . .” https://www.armymwr.com/application/files/5615/3675/0457/DA_PAM_40-11_Preventive_Medicine.pdf. These are things observed and learned well in advance of covid.
In a two-page fact sheet prepared by the U.S. Army Public Health Command, it states that respiratory diseases are transmitted when “infected people expel viruses when they cough, sneeze or talk” and “droplets are propelled a short distance and can either land on or be breathed in by another person”. https://ph.health.mil/resources/Barracks%20Layout%20Jan%202010.pdf. Given how these diseases are transmitted, it makes sense to either keep some distance and/or wear a mask. Interestingly, the military health officials identified the risks and ways to reduce those risks to maintain a ready force.
“When the COVID-causing pathogen emerged, it was a virus that was completely new to science, and authorities understood very little about its transmissibility or any other features. . . . In this environment of uncertainty and rapidly shifting available information, some emergency decisions were made that later proved to be errors and were corrected when frenetic research provided more information.” The Science Behind COVID’s Six-Foot Rule | Scientific American.
In view of the pre-covid era work by public health officials and their understanding of respiratory diseases and transmission, the idea that Fauci is somehow guilty of something worthy of wasting more taxpayer time and revenue is due only to politicians’ need for theater, more attention and the exercise of power. In the end, it looks more like Fauci and his colleagues erred on the side of being overly cautious to protect the public in confronting something that was new and unknown.
About the Timothy Trainer: Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector, and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.
Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights;the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.
Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.
In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.
In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.
Click here to learn about all of Tim’s books.
