“We don’t trust you!”: Reflections on the Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday, 29 July 2026, and Why So Many Americans Are Turning “Anti-Vax”

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“… if a person’s behavior doesn’t make sense, it’s because I’m missing a piece of their context.” — Devin Price, PhD

Ever since the COVID-19 Pandemic, I have periodically been asked for my thoughts about why so many Americans, notably those of a particular political persuasion, have increasingly become anti-vax. While correlation certainly doesn’t translate to causation, there are lessons that can be gleaned from the varied public perceptions about the trustworthiness of our knowledge institutions. Chief among these under increasing scrutiny are our universities and government science research programs.

Lost within the political theater of last month’s festivities lies a fundamental truth: Dr. Anthony Fauci and the NIH obliterated their social capital and grossly violated the deferential agreement for countless Americans during and since the COVID-19 Pandemic. The consequences from this trend have been troubling and wide-reaching, affecting research funding, the staffing and availability of health care facilities, and more. As such, these two concepts provide a much-needed framework for understanding why we now live in times that were once unthinkable, such as having people in our country who adamantly refuse to get their children vaccinated for controllable diseases (ahem, like measles), despite the long-standing track record for safety and efficacy of such preventative resources.

Indeed, this perceived violation was the crux of Senator Josh Hawley’s (R, MS) argument. Party-pandering and melodramatics aside, Hawley professed a key belief that that many in his constituency, and Republicans around the United States, believe: That Fauci and his ilk “got rich” during the Pandemic, while the masses were strongarmed against their will into what they hold to be draconian “social distancing” measures, watching loved ones suffer and die from afar. Put more succinctly, these people believe that Fauci benefited directly from the seemingly wasted sacrifices of the American public. Most tragic of all is the death of over one million citizens, all while Fauci and company padded their pockets, dined at fancy restaurants, and misused taxpayer dollars. Where we’re at today should come as little surprise, culminating in Trump 2.0 and DOGE’s willy-nilly funding cuts and government rifs alongside of the spread of measles, cases of extreme gastrointestinal distress from our produce, and other unforced errors.

Most are likely familiar with the idea of social capital, but a brief review is warranted here. In his oft cited study Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam explained that this requisite foundation for societies to function is rooted in shared structures, values, and basic faith and trust. However, as Putnam detailed, U.S. citizens have become ever more isolated from one another, even dating this trend to beginning as far back as the 1960s. In addition to increased loneliness and the hollowing out of community structures, trust across the board has waned. This erosion of trust has only been fueled by the increasingly costly and impersonal nature of healthcare in the United States. Considering this framework, the mere concept of “social distancing” reads like cruel irony. Nonetheless, the conditions for mistrust were laid well before the first case of COVID-19 even reached our shores.

Less widely known is the paradigm of the “deferential agreement.” I first came across this framework while reading Gary Sheffield’s study on British officer-man relations during the First World War. Often unspoken, the deferential agreement is the implicit arrangement between a wider population and the one(s) who lead them, grounded in socio-cultural norms and mores. In exchange for their deference to such leadership, the populus writ large need to perceive that their best interests are being looked after. This forms a vital component, if not the bedrock, for fostering trust. When maintained and nurtured, the deferential agreement becomes an unbreakable bond, whereby people will voluntarily sacrifice for the greater good. However, as is the case with the perceptions about Dr. Fauci’s led pandemic response, trust is (and may remain irreconcilably) broken.

Of course, we can look to history to shed light on and help us explain why so many Americans, in many instances despite their own best interests, share Senator Hawley’s opinion. For me, I am incidentally reminded of the World War I French army mutinies at Chemin des Dames in 1917. Seeing as how COVID-19 has been/is often compared to the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1917-20, this example seems germane. After seeing countless numbers of their brothers-in-arms emerge from the trenches only to be mechanically decimated by German machine gun fire (the Imperial German forces held the ridge above) for weeks on end, enough was enough. Despite threats from their commanding officers, the campaign screeched to a standstill. Why? Because it was widely believed by those in the ranks that the officers issuing and carrying out the orders did not have their best interests in mind. Indeed, calls to resume the fight to defend the French people fell on deaf ears. It wasn’t until Marshall Philippe Pétain, the hero of Verdun, was appointed command. Quickly, Pétain implemented operations that saw the burden of fighting in this treacherous sector evenly distributed so that all French soldiers would serve in this front, thus thwarting the dissolution of the French army.

Today, we are witnessing the same sort of mutiny; this time against the common good. The contradictions and stargazing that litter Dr. Fauci’s diaries have once again brought this tension to the fore. Compounding matters, the majority of the Democratic Senators on the committee took last month’s hearing as an opportunity to sycophantically fawn over Dr. Fauci, his role “in the arena” of the Pandemic, and his encyclopedic CV (save for arguably Senator John Fetterman, D, PA). Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around, as alluded to by Senator Fetterman, who opted to raise such issues when discussing the quandary he, as the former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and the rest of the Executives in Harrisburg, faced over the course of 2020.

While Republican sophistry did much to overshadow genuine inquiry, trading soundbites at the expense of a genuine investigation, there were still moments of seemingly authentic and ostensibly politically neutral questions asked of the beleaguered scientist. This is evidenced by some of the questions posed by Senator James Lankford (R, OK), ranging from specifics about addressing the potential for (incidentally, as I write) a measles outbreak that would kill more children than COVID-19 would because of missed inoculations, to questions about the contradictions surrounding the origins of the virus. Seemingly non-partisan, Senator Lankford closed his inquiry by asking Dr. Fauci, “… what can we gain and what advice could you give us, to say that in a future setting we’ve got to make sure that we get that information and that we’re going to get that insight?”

Source: C-SPAN, Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies on the COVID-19 pandemic, Accessed 30 July 2026, YouTube, 01:15:17 

At this juncture, thanks to the release of Dr. Fauci’s diary entries, the resulting resurgence in criticism, all exacerbated by the spin generated from Wednesday’s hearing, public trust in our scientific institutions and much of the government has been decimated. As Senator and Chairman Rand Paul (R, KY) and Senator Rick Scott (R, FL) pointed out, few have done more to erode public trust in science than Dr. Anthony Fauci in our lifetime. While the fairness of this condemnation is debatable, especially considering how the Democrats in the committee couched the proceedings as a return to McCarthyism, the fact remains that an overwhelming number of Americans do not trust us in the Academy, the Sciences, or in other long-heralded institutions of knowledge. As such, it is our duty to move beyond the context provided above and get to work reestablishing the trust that has been lost, no matter how futile it many seem. Good luck… we’re going to need it!

About the Author

Rob Shafer
Rob Shafer, PhD, MAEd, is an independent educator, scholar, and visual artist based in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. In addition to his wide range of teaching, academic, and artistic experience, Rob has also served in various roles within the federal government. When Rob’s not shaking his head in disbelief and frustration amid our current state of affairs, you can find him with his wife and cat doing much the same while watching the New York Rangers. Rob doesn’t do much with/on social media; questions, inquiries, and general conviviality can be sent to: herrdoktorshafer@gmail.com
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