American Politics: Discuss and Debate (Page 37 of 37)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-admi … uth-texas/

Obviously Biden saw the same poll and had the same concerns.  I don't think there's any harm in doing some highly-visible work at the border.  If it were up to me, I'd send Kamala down to the border with very public events, especially in border towns where Republicans are making serious inroads.  One of Harris' strengths is her toughness on crime, and I think if Biden/Harris even give the appearance of being tougher on the border than they have been (even if it's all for show), then I think it will be much harder for non-MAGA Republicans to vote for Trump. 

I know some of these people, and I promise you they'll think "Well the economy is doing better, Biden seems to be doing things on the border, Harris is doing good work....I can live with four more years of this."

What's nuts is... as an investment instrument...(which it is not touted to be, it's supposed to be a currency used for everyday transactions)... if you held bitcoin before the pandemic and still hold it now, you'd still have a 10x return on the investment. 

The hype period is over but the market still values it as a potential future currency, otherwise the price would still not be so high (even if it's half of the peak).

The idea of giving people power especially in third world countries to not be reliant on the currency of potentially corrupt govts is a powerful one.  But too many people got involved in bitcoin simply as an investor and a lot of those who came in during the hype have exited now.   A lot of big companies exploited retail investors, people lost their shirt.   Even though crypto is supposed to be about removing influence by govt, the flipside of the lack of regulation was wealthy people getting more wealthy from it and consumers being manipulated by pyramid schemes.

For the life of me, trends like nfts, web 3, obscure cryptocoins.... they seem so full of hot air.  I don't know how people get so excited over such crap.  There seems to be more important things to help humanity but we have very bright people who get consumed and apply their talents toward this stuff.  Can't people smell bullshit?

They were not a terrible idea, even Wade would've approved.

Today's laptop is a hybrid netbook any how when you compare percentage of data stored locally vs the cloud.

the simple solution is refurbished laptops.  They tend to have issues, but usually not major ones, and are much cheaper.

I don't celebrate any right wing nutcase.

RFK Jr. doesn't deserve the name Kennedy.

It's been a long time since the Kennedy clan was relevant nationally.  He'll pull less than 100k votes and nobody will remember he ran as anything but a joke.  Kind of like Kanye West last election.

It's a little confusing, because of statements like these that indicate overwhelming support on your side for these candidates...

"I'm intrigued by RFK Jr. going into the race as an independent."

"He's been strongly supported by MAGA as some kind of spoiler to Biden, but that's because he's philosophically a conservative.  He's straight crazy, and he's supported by Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Ron DeSantis, and Joe Rogan, among others."

"He made a lot of noise early because he was polling in the teens/20s in certain polls."

"Experts said it was essentially name recognition driving the polling because, again, he doesn't have any of the same ideals that Democrats would ever vote for." <---- derogatory remark against Dems?

I might be misunderstanding. If so, nevermind...

I was just calling it like I saw it. And I owe Slider_Quinn21 an apology. I can admit when I am wrong. I dislike anything positive about the right wing at any point at this point, and his statements just felt like a veiled attempt at spreading positivity about right wingers, without knowing more. Like I said, if I am incorrect, nevermind.

I also apologize for jumping the gun.

It has nothing to do with my stepdad, but everything to do about my dislike of right wingers. The mere mention of Joe Rogan or Steve Bannon makes me physically ill.

I appreciate you, Slider_Quinn21.

I will never make that mistake again.

Jordan doesn't have the votes either, it's absolutely pathetic.  GOP are not interested in governing.

If there's a will, there is usually a way on that R side.

But this R party is beholden to Trump and only Trump, so we will see if anything can be accomplished.

Even if there are any moderates, they're afraid of getting primaried, so they'll still be beholden to Trump just to make their life easier.

Until Trump's hold on the R party is over with in some way, that's how it will always be.

This was a difficult situation for you. Democrat or not, Hillary Clinton's politics, voting record, values, professed intentions and intentions were abhorrent to you. The Clintons were Democrats in name, but their politics and actions were all too often about courting Wall Street, outsourcing labour overseas, gutting welfare, etc. Hillary Clinton expected you to vote for her because she wasn't a registered Republican.

I think you have to consider that Hillary Clinton didn't do anything to earn your support. Even if you look at voting as an exercise in voting for your preferred opponent, your logic at the time was that you would vote against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton simultaneously because your preferred opponent was, I dunno, Joe the Tiger Guy. Clinton didn't do anything to convince you that she would be your preferred opponent either. She seemed to take her victory for granted.

In contrast, I feel Biden put in the work. Biden worked hard to be the president you could grudgingly tolerate, the president you'd prefer to oppose and work around, the president you'd rather be grit your teeth and endure as opposed to the president who would actively try to get you killed in nuclear war and pandemic.

Biden's team called Trump a flailing, losing, messageless campaign of nothing, but he didn't kick back, he campaigned hard like he was losing. He repeatedly declared how he was a proud Democrat who would work hard for Republican and Democrat and independent voters alike. That's just rhetoric, but Clinton didn't even do that.

It goes both ways, Slider_Quinn21. Maybe you wish you voted for Clinton, but candidates have to do something to earn your vote.

(Please note that I still fully support Joe Biden and will do everything I can to get him elected.  My support hasn't wavered, and I think he's done a great job).

I'm starting to get nervous about 2024.

I know polls from this far out are mostly junk, but there's a lot of bad signs that I hope the Democrats and the Biden campaign are taking very seriously.  We know that Trump has overtaken Biden in a lot of national polls, but he's also started taking over in a lot of state polls.  And important battleground state polls.  Biden was down really big with young voters, both white and non-white, even among people that voted overwhelmingly for him in 2020.  I don't know if it's because of his age, because of the economy, because of some of the unrest in the world or what.  But the polls are what the polls are, and if the polls are right and the election was today, Trump wins.

Now the polls may not be right and the election isn't today.  But the election is a year from now, and things don't look good.  A four-time indicted maniac fascist is inching his way back to the White House.  I'm getting very nervous.

Now there could be tons of reasons for this.  Because the Republican primary is happening now (and there's not really a Democratic one), Trump's name is in the news more.  There's maybe more enthusiasm for Trump because he's actively campaigning and Biden really isn't.  There isn't really a blitz in favor of Biden saying all the positive things that have happened in the last three years.  All that will come and all that will help Biden.  Right now, all people are hearing is how bad things are because the only people campaigning are Republicans.

And Trump's trials are (supposedly) coming up.  Trump is taking the stand today in his fraud trial.  There's plenty of time for things to come up, for him to get a lot of bad press, and for people to wake up.

But still.  People that voted for Biden are saying that they're going to switch to Trump.  That's scary.

And it reminds me of 2016.  Everyone in the Democratic Party coalesced around a candidate that was deeply unpopular, with (mostly BS) fraud/criminal connections that rile people up.  In Hillary's case, she tried to go for a knockout instead of a win, focusing on states that would give her a landslide win instead of shoring up states that would just give her any kind of win.  I assume Biden's team will zig where Hillary's team zagged.

That being said, I'm still just surprised that we're here.  Biden talked in 2020 about being a one-term president and passing the baton on to someone else.  The Democrats won both chambers of Congress and the White House.  They had big names in Congress and in the Cabinet that they could've lifted up and popularized.  They could've given Kamala Harris work to make her more popular and likeable.

Instead, they gave Harris the impossible task of dealing with the border.  Mayor Pete has fumbled a couple of the big opportunities he had to make a splash nationally.  No one in Congress stepped up to have a high profile.  No one stepped up, and even if Biden didn't want to run, he might *have* to run because there's no one else.  Biden is unpopular, but Harris is just as unpopular.  If Biden didn't run, who would even be able to run in his place, and would that person have any more of a chance than Biden does?

They had years to build a deep bench, and what do they have to show for it?  Gretchen Whitmer?  Gavin Newsom? 

Scary times.

How will you lose your job?

Ugh, that sucks.  I assume moving out of state isn't an easy or workable thing for you to do?

TF wrote about Governor Tate Reeves:

I'm very sorry to hear this, Temporal Flux. I haven't been posting daily as is my wont because I didn't feel it appropriate to talk about culture and such without conveying my sympathies first. Feel free to email me if you want me to handle the Sliders.tv hosting bill from now on.

I have read Governor Tate Reeves' Wikipedia entry and I had to triple-check to make sure this wasn't the Wiki entry for a fictional supervillain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_Reeves

I am angry and upset that Temporal Flux's employment is in danger due to Reeves' re-election. TF has never gone into detail about his job in public, so I won't touch on it here, but his work for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety is vital, critical and lifesaving. I have gone through a training program for TF's job and applied to work that job and I washed out so badly that my respect for TF quadrupled.

Reeves is a nutjob who told people to combat COVID-19 with prayer rather than masks, held mass gatherings during the height of the pandemic, misappropriated welfare funds, supported presidential election fraud, denied the existence of systemic racism, and now he's going after Temporal Flux.

As someone who failed to enter TF's profession (and failed so hard people still laugh about it), I'm not equipped to offer any professional advice.

However, everyone on Sliders.tv knows: Temporal Flux is a dynamic and brilliant mind, a fountain of information, a relentlessly analytical mind that predicts what's coming long before anyone else has noticed it on the horizon. This includes the threat of inflation and cryptocurrency being a scam. (Thanks to Temporal Flux, I never bought any of Felicia Day's crypto coin even though I wanted to support her.)

Everyone who reads TF's posts can tell that he's thoughtful, clever, resourceful, reasonable, and an asset to any friend group, any team, any organization, any endeavour, any enterprise, any mission. Everyone who's ever talked to TF has walked away smarter and better whether they knew it or not.

I hate Tate Reeves more than I ever hated David Peckinpah.

Reeves is also a major player in this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_ … ter_crisis

Sadly, too many politicians out their personal agendas ahead of serving their constituents

From the STAR TREK thread:
https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php … 901#p14901

Wil Wheaton's blog entry on masking is here:
https://wilwheaton.net/2023/11/mind-you … be-a-dick/

While outdoor transmission risk is negligible, a mask reduces it to non-existent. But even then, I don't see why anyone needs to take issue with anyone else's headwear.

I'm finding some of this baffling. I recognize that Wil Wheaton has offended you due to his behaviour at fan gatherings. You're someone who pays for the chance to meet actors, and I take it that Wheaton has failed to give you a good experience on at least one occasion. I have never met Wheaton and don't know what he's like in person, I've only read his books, and I've recently been informed that the writer is not their writing. I am sorry that you had a bad experience with Wheaton.

However, I don't see why you, someone who regularly declared the supremacy of N95s over all other masks, would take issue with a minor-league celebrity answering a question on his blog, explaining why he wears masks at indoor gatherings, and using his platform and near-non-existent fame to normalize wearing masks at public events to ward off illness. Note that the mask he was wearing, which looks to me like a KF94, is what I myself wear.

The thing about KF94 and KN95 masks: they block particles going in and out, unlike a surgical which only blocks particles going out. When you wear a surgical mask, you need everyone else to wear one too or you might as well not wear it at all. When you wear a KF94 or a KN95, you don't need anyone else around you to wear one; the protection is going both ways. To wear one of these masks is to tell everyone around you that your measures are for you and sufficient for you.

I'll respond to the other stuff in the STAR TREK thread when the Pfizer isn't hitting me as hard, but if you dislike Wil Wheaton, I am absolutely sure he did something to incur your wrath.

Personal note: I have stopped, for the most part, wearing a mask all the time.  I got the new Covid shot (and the flu shot), and I have worn a mask the rare times I've flown on an airplane.  I've gone to sporting events, and I recently saw the Marvels without a mask (which was rare, I've masked up to see every movie I've seen in theaters - as I said in the Disney thread, I saw that movie with almost no notice).  We don't go out to eat a ton or go out in general much, but it's impossible to get my kids to properly mask and I feel like they're more likely to get me sick than a stranger.

I think about it every time I don't mask, though.

What I think is interesting about it from either perspective is that being sick sucks.  Not just Covid or the flu.  Getting any respiratory illness just sucks.  Feeling sick, having a sore throat, having a cough, not being able to breathe out your nose - it's all annoying and debilitating.

And, yeah, during the pandemic lockdown time, none of us got sick.  I don't think I got sick in 2020 or 2021.  Fall, winter, spring, cold and flu season, any of it.  And it was great.

So it's not just Covid virtue signaling.  I think it's a reasonable decision to wear a mask for a couple of hours in exchange for not feeling sick for days/weeks.  It's mildly uncomfortable, but if you're watching a movie or a sporting event or whatever, you'll probably be distracted enough by that not to notice.

MODERATOR NOTE: ireactions here. This post contains misinformation about the efficacy of masks and vaccines. This is not acceptable. This poster is warned not to post further misinformation about masks and vaccines going forward.

This post further declares that only sexual abuse counts as child abuse. This minimization and dismissiveness of other forms of abuse is outrageous and unacceptable. This poster is warned not to minimize the experiences of abuse survivors going forward.

Celebrities are hypocrites, and hilariously bad ones at that.  Wil Wheaton is at the top of this list.  This really has nothing to do with his masking, it's just the person.  He was once a working young actor, and when his career dried up, he pivoted to what he does over the last few decades and good for him.  However, a large part of what he does now, career wise, is playing victim.  He disowned his entire family, which in and of itself is something I personally can't wrap myself around.  They didn't sexually abuse him.  They had him work as an actor and supposedly took advantage of him finally, and for that he relates them all to the Devil, even his siblings who had nothing to do with that.  Again, this is Wil's shtick.  He charges a laughable price at conventions, where again, don't go near him.  He's miserable even when you go to get his autograph. 

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: This poster is falsely claiming that children are only truly abused if they are sexually abused. This is completely false. Children can be abused and exploited in many ways, from labour exploitation, financial exploitation, assault without sexual assault, emotional abuse, neglect, gaslighting, and more, and just because this poster can't wrap their head around it doesn't mean these forms of abuse don't exist. Furthermore, any survivor of abuse has the right to cut off contact from their abuser, and any survivor of abuse has the right to tell their stories, regardless of this poster's approval or disapproval.

Resources on forms of child abuse:

https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/chil … hild-abuse

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241532

If one wishes to wear a mask everywhere, that's that person's choice, same as getting the vaccine.  I truly have massive regret in how that was handled.  I think the mandates were un-American, and frankly Dr. Fauci should have been fired by Trump but he was too afraid of being blamed for the virus.  The "science" on masking as well as vaccines has progressively been less and less agreeable to the mandates on both.  Even the vaunted N95 masks are not going to protect you over a reasonable period of time from airborne disease.  It's great that QuinnSlidr has not been sick, but there are a multitude of factors beyond masking that may be the reason for that.  Boosters IMO, ehhh, it's like the flu shot, probably worthwhile for the elderly or immune compromised but really of little benefit for the general public.  The fact these CDC doctors continue to pronounce what is or is not advisable with what is still absolute questionable data is ridiculous. 

Again, I am not some crazy Trumper here, but the way the pandemic was handled was an outright disaster.  The damage done to children's schooling, the mentally ill and addicted, not to mention the economic repercussions.  The massive inflation, which is now subsiding but still will cost Joe Biden in 2024, is a direct result of that.  The problem was Trump was too hated and untrustworthy on the subject.  China is still an economic disaster as the result of their policies.  You cannot stop the world over a virus.  There will be more of them.  More and more.  The level of pollution, treatment of animals, global warming, and idiotic garbage like "gain of function" research promoted by the medical elites (such as Fauci) will trigger additional epidemics.  Pandemics happen due to public policy, there's really no actual reason to have them.  Civilization was not at risk. 

Personally, I'll wear a mask in a hospital, because the germs are out of control, nowhere else.  Done with them, I threw them out.  Done with boosters, their efficacy simply isn't proven.

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: Masks with electrostatic filtering and a good seal are effective in filtering viral particles from inhalation. It's a technology that's existed since 1907 and is used in surgical masks, KN95 masks, N95 masks and KF94 masks. Please rely on medically and scientifically verified sources for information on masks.

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-car … -work-best

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrost … ecipitator

COVID-19 and flu vaccines are effective at mitigating infection, symptoms, and preventiong hospitalization and death. Please rely on medically and scientifically verified sources for information on vaccines.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/unders … avaccines/

https://www.nfid.org/news-updates/media … 24-season/

Grizzlor, your post is unacceptable. It's one thing to have a negative opinion about a public figure, although it's beyond me why your own family relationships would have any bearing whatsoever on how Wil Wheaton relates to his. But your misinformation on masks and vaccination will not be tolerated.

Masks with electrostatic filtering and a good seal are effective in filtering viral particles from inhalation. It's a technology that's existed since 1907 and is used in surgical masks, KN95 masks, N95 masks and KF94 masks. To claim otherwise is lying, deceitful, fraudulent misinformation. This will not be allowed here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrost … ecipitator

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-car … -work-best

mRNA vaccines are effective in mitigating infection, lessening symptoms and preventing hospitalization and death by introducing messenger ribonucleic acid that corresponds to a protein in the outer membrane of a virus, teaching the human immune system to recognize the presence of that virus and create an antibody response. Each new mRNA vaccine has been retailored to more recent mutations of COVID-19.

Flu shots in 2023 use deactivated or weakened versions of circulating flu viruses to train the immune system to develop antibodies as well. They These vaccines are also effective at mitigating severity, hospitalization and death.

Furthermore, to call the 2023 COVID vaccines a "booster" is severely misinformed; a booster is to increase existing immunity. The updated COVID-vaccine for newer variants is effectively a new COVID vaccine, much in the same way a flu shot each year is not a "booster" on the previous year.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/unders … avaccines/

https://www.nfid.org/news-updates/media … 24-season/

It's one thing to say the pandemic wasn't well-managed, to disagree with mask mandates and vaccine mandates and lockdowns, to say that viruses are inevitable, to say that you yourself no longer mask and get vaccinations. Those are about your own conduct and your own opinion. But flat out misinformation will not be tolerated. Consider this a moderator warning.

MODERATOR WARNING: This post contains misrepresentations of mRNA vaccines and false claims regarding electrostatic masks. The next time this poster makes false claims regarding public health and safety, they will be banned for a week. The next incident will lead to a one month ban. An incident after that will lead to a permanent ban.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize this forum about a television show was in reality a graduate level discussion board at Johns Hopkins.  But I'll play along because you are putting words in my mouth.

1. I know how flu vaccines work, they are developed based on data from each hemisphere, because it's winter in one, and summer in the other.  The vaccine companies then use this data to HEDGE repeat HEDGE on which flu strains they expect to be most prevalent.  I've gotten plenty of flu shots, and I know that sometimes they guess wrong and you aren't very protected.  Oh well, it is what it is. 

MODERATOR NOTE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This poster is dismissing the value of flu shots as formulated by guesswork. Flu shots are formulated based on extensive surveillance and forecasting data across 114 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. It is not completely accurate forecasting, but it is not random guesswork. Due to numerous strains of influenza, the annual flu shot cannot offer complete protection, and strains not within the annual shot may arise. Statistically, a flu shot still reduces the risk of illness among the overall population by 40 to 60 percent and is worthwhile protection.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/vaccineeffect.htm

2. I never said anything about flu vaccines previoiusly, and those are NOT mRNA vaccines anyway.  Now, when it comes to COVID vaccines, after the first vaccines were passed by FDA, subsequent iterations are tested only in a lab, that's called a PRECLINICAL trial.  They are NOT tested on humans.  Furthermore, they are tested on the "currently circulating" virus, and as we have seen with COVID, it mutates quickly, like any coronovirus does, and so the vaccine being administered are, ironically, like flu vaccines, just targeting what the researchers decide is their best guess.  Again, this is fine, and anyone who wishes to take it is fine by me.  In terms of efficacy of those vaccines, the only clinical trials were conducted on people and released back in December 2020, as I said before.  At the time, the vaccines had tremendous performance against the pre-Delta/Omicron COVID strands.  Once it mutated to those, the vaccines at the time had large drops in effectiveness, so out came the "boosters."  Which by the way, is not my term, that is the term the media and even pharma uses on Covid vaccines!  What you are currently being sold, by pharmaceuticals, is NOT clinically tested, and neither you nor I can actually claim efficacy  because there has not been actual human research.  Lab research IMO is not sufficient, because most things that work in a petri dish do not work in human trial.  Any researcher would admit to this. 

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid … comparison

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: This poster has falsely characterized new mRNA vaccines as not responsive to current versions of COVID-19. This is false.

New mRNA vaccines are reformulated to target the lineage of recent COVID-19 variants, a lineage from which currently circulating variants of COVID-19 would have emerged. The original mRNA vaccine mechanism of spike protein generation for immune system response against the original COVID-19 virus has proven effective over the course of mass distribution beginning in 2021.

The reformulated vaccines, while not a perfect match to currently circulating variants, have sufficient efficiency from lineage targeting to recognize the new variants and create an immune system response.

While the immune response is imperfect, it is sufficient to ward off severe illness, hospitalization, and death.

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/what- … inter-2023

This poster's protest that the specific reformulated vaccine has not received full human trials is unreasonable for a vaccine that must be reformulated every 6 - 12 months. The underlying mRNA vaccine technology has been tested since 2013, the underlying COVID-19 vaccine technology has been further reviewed during the urgent roll-out of 2021 and continues to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRNA_vaccine

3. You technically agreed with what I said about masks.  If you're not wearing an N95, you are likely unprotected.
Secondly, you completely passed right over what I said about the other mitigating factors in regards to disease prevention and spread.  People who are healthy, mask, vaccine, or not, have been proven to have an extremely lower level of risk from infectious disease.  It's simple biology.  Those who are not, probably should consider things like vaccines and/or masks.  I could just as easily argue that COVID's "decrease" is due to "herd immunity," and the wearing of masks is now unnecessary.  Given that mandates have stopped pretty much everywhere, I'd not be wrong, no?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446908/

But to be "scientific," here is the NIH study of other studies on the subject of mask efficacy, in terms of wearing, types, and the mandates.  They found that most of the studies were problematic, because they were observational rather than experimental.  Now I HATED reading these kinds of materials in grad school, but the Results section you will find that the studies were flawed and the results were all across the board.  So before you "moderate" me for saying the science is not settled on these things, perhaps you can admit the science is NOT settled?  Which was my point.  Do masks work?  Obviously YES they work to some degree, I'm not an idiot.  The science however, is simply not conclusively proven, because there are again, a multitude of environmental factors.  It's called everyday life, and while anyone is free to wear a mask, I am also free to continue to doubt that choice.  Same as those who shout about the undeniable health benefits of being a vegan, which again, not conclusive that fully eliminating meat products is the way to go.

MODERATOR FACT CHECK: This poster claims that only N95 masks offer protection. This is false.

Masks with electrostatic filtering and a good seal are effective in filtering viral particles from inhalation. Electrostatic filtration is a technology that has existed since 1907 and is used in surgical masks, KN95 masks, N95 masks and KF94 masks. Electrostatic filtration is not limited to N95 masks.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr … espirators

This poster cites "mitigating factors". These factors have no bearing on the proven filtration efficacy of well-sealed electrostatic masks in blocking particles, droplets and aerosols from being inhaled by a mask wearer.

4. We come to Mr. Wheaton, and you know what, yes, you are absolutely correct, I was LAZY, and didn't research his multitude of claims.  I have in fact heard them all, because I heard him on Rosenbaum's podcast recount them all.  Again, it was laziness.  However, I would never discount child abuse and its lasting effects intentionally.  I do apologize if that's how it came across, and that is the ONLY thing I'm apologizing for writing here.

In conclusion, you can "moderate" all you like, but in my opinion, pointing to an article which itself is merely a collection of best recommendations, as if that is scientific law, is acceptable?  How is my questioning the lack of high level scientific consensus "misinformation?"  When as I showed, the scientists themselves can't agree on most any of this.  I really DON'T feel like discussing viruses and masks here regardless, but I also defend the first amendment, there is no more important human right. 

He was once a "hero" during the AIDS era.  Since that point, he's been a bureaucrat, which is fine.  He was in a no-win situation given the President was a complete moron.  He DID preface most of what he advised as simply that, best-guesses.  He tried to be optimistic.

Where Fauci was dead wrong was in directed massive funds to gain of function research, which was going on in Wuhan because you couldn't get that kind of madness passed a regulator in the USA or most of Europe.  Was that the origin of COVID?  Very possibly.  He and even Trump tried to dispel that notion, when in reality there should have been immediate and loud criticism of China.  They couldn't do that, because their hands were "dirty."  Let me say this, I don't know when, but there will come a reckoning to which the "work" of Fauci's NIH gain of function research is placed right alongside garbage like MK Ultra.  No one will ever be brought to justice over that, of course, that's the American way. 

IMO, he failed in his role as chief bureaucrat of NIH.  His ethical compass was compromised, at some point.  He has been dismissive of actual medical criticism over the years, alleged by scores of reputable and unbiased researchers in his own field.  You can call that conspiratorial if you like, but it's based on well-known public information.  He's no hero.  Not a fan of being labeled a propagandist when again, the science is not settled.  Being anti-vaxx would be these people who scream about autism or that microchips are being implanted.  Those have zero basis in fact.