{"id":32351,"date":"2026-07-29T20:04:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=32351"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:04:35","slug":"a-broken-healthcare-system-not-faucis-diary-is-why-covid-ravaged-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=32351","title":{"rendered":"A Broken Healthcare System, Not Fauci\u2019s Diary, Is Why Covid Ravaged the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-ft-photo is-style-default\">\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?fit=7800%2C5200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=7800 7800w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=300 300w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=768 768w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=540 540w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=1000 1000w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=2400 2400w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2287497866_5281ed.jpg?w=3600 3600w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1300px) 650px, (min-width: 800px) 64vw, (min-width: 500px) calc(100vw - 5rem), calc(100vw - 3rem)\" alt=\"Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2026. Dr. Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is testifying after Senator Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky, released more than 1000 pages of Fauci's diary entries from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Alex WROBLEWSKI \/ AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"7800\" height=\"5200\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption class=\"photo__figcaption\">\n      <span class=\"photo__caption\">Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 29, 2026. <\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"photo__credit\">Photo: Alex Wroblewski\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span>    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"-mt-2.5 mb-[30px] md:mb-[34px] border border-[#eee] pt-[9px] pb-2 px-3 text-[16px] font-sans leading-[24px] text-body flex gap-[15px]\">\n      <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-[46px] mt-1.5 object-cover rounded-full overflow-hidden shrink-0 md:hidden\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mychal-Smith-e1768512744933.jpg\" width=\"46\" height=\"46\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of \u201cStakes Is High: Life After the American Dream,\u201d winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-underline\">Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,<\/span> has made it his mission to put Dr. Anthony Fauci in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee subpoenaed Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who led the nation\u2019s response to the Covid pandemic, to answer still more questions related to the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/origins-of-covid\/\">origins of the disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paul insists the novel coronavirus was the result of the National Institutes of Health having funded <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/07\/27\/covid-anthony-fauci-rand-paul-research\/\">gain-of-function research<\/a> at China\u2019s Wuhan Institute of Virology \u2014 essentially that the virus was created in a lab in China and unleashed on an unsuspecting public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fauci has maintained that while the mostly likely source of the Covid-19 virus was animal-to-human transmission but that we cannot know for certain. Paul thinks he deliberately misled the public about the coronavirus\u2019s origins and called him to testify before the Homeland Security Committee based on supposed new evidence that comes from Fauci\u2019s diaries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over 7 million people worldwide have died from Covid, with about 1.2 million of those deaths occurring in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the quick work to produce a vaccine undoubtedly saved many millions of lives, that level of loss is difficult to account for and has certainly taken an emotional and psychic toll on the world since. We, the public, deserve answers about what went wrong during that time and how our governments are preparing for similar outbreaks in the future such that they can prevent the loss of so much life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That is not what Paul and his Fauci subpoena are focused on. Instead, Paul sunk his libertarian teeth into a xenophobic conspiracy theory that reinforces his ideological priors: too many government agencies that spend too many public dollars.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"promote-banner\">\n    <a class=\"promote-banner__link\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/the-coronavirus-crisis\/\"><br \/><span class=\"promote-banner__image\"><br \/><img width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?fit=300%2C200\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A employee wearing a protective jumpsuit disinfects a local tram in Zagreb as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19 caused by novel coronavirus on March 13, 2020. - Since the novel coronavirus first emerged in late December 2019, more than 135,640 cases have been recorded in 122 countries and territories, killing 5,043 people, according to an AFP tally compiled on March 13, 2020 based on official sources. (Photo by Damir SENCAR \/ AFP) (Photo by DAMIR SENCAR\/AFP via Getty Images)\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=4000 4000w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=300 300w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=768 768w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=540 540w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=1000 1000w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=2400 2400w, https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/GettyImages-1206948638-coronavirus-1584129093.jpg?w=3600 3600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/>        <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"promote-banner__text\">\n<p class=\"promote-banner__eyebrow\">\n            Read Our Complete Coverage          <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><br \/><\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the same reason Paul avoids the real, persistent public health crisis underlying huge spike in deaths in the U.S. from Covid \u2014 and a host of other diseases: the lack of universal healthcare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Did the virus come from a <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/origins-of-covid\/\">lab in Wuhan<\/a>? I certainly don\u2019t trust Paul\u2019s ideologically infused takes, but I\u2019ll leave it for others to decide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To focus on it at the exclusion of all other public health policy, though, is clearly a mistake. It\u2019s learning the wrong lesson from the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The United States remains the only \u201cdeveloped\u201d country without universal healthcare coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The insurance companies and for-profit medical system insist that this is the best system to provide people with the best healthcare, but during early days of the Covid pandemic, its <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/11\/13\/covid-pandemic-hidden-toll-hospitals\/\">limitations<\/a> came into stark relief. The pandemic put so much stress on our system that resulted in <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/Politics\/hospitals-nationwide-face-shortage-medical-staff-amid-spike\/story?id=74319020\">shortages in staff<\/a>, and a decreased quality of care for those infected with virus, and all others who needed care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Underlying medical issues exasperated Covid deaths. These are exactly the types of chronic illnesses that people suffer from because of a lack of preventative care or a failure to get treatment because of prohibitive costs \u2014 respiratory diseases, heart conditions, blood pressure issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s notable that some of the greatest successes of Covid policy arose not from private health insurers <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/03\/19\/coronavirus-vaccine-medical-supplies-price-gouging\/\">acting<\/a> on their <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2021\/04\/21\/cvs-lobby-health-insurance-medicare-for-all\/\">mandates<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/12\/02\/vermont-nursing-home-covid-genesis\/\">profit<\/a>, but rather by mandates and funding from local, state, and federal government. Acts of Congress forced healthcare insurers and providers into covering certain services. When testing became a feasible method of helping to prevent the spread of Covid, federal funding made it far more widely available \u2014 even for the uninsured, with the government providing reimbursement for healthcare providers who tested those without coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is to say nothing of a federal program to speed along a Covid vaccine and rush its distribution \u2014 the key to creating enough immunity to weaken the virus and lower death rates. For those who got Covid, antiviral medication, which could drastically reduce symptoms and prevent hospitalizations and even death, was available for free thanks to federal funding. In the first two years of the pandemic, around <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/health-care-costs\/paxlovid-covid-sticker-shock-insurance\/\">6 million people<\/a> took the drug without paying a thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, the American Public Health Association released a policy statement that began: \u201cThe COVID pandemic adds a new sense of urgency to establish a universal health care system in the United States. Our current system is inequitable, does not adequately cover vulnerable groups, is cost prohibitive, and lacks the flexibility to respond to periods of economic and health downturns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This remains true, as the Trump administration and the Republican-led Congress continue their assault of existing forms of federal healthcare spending.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-embed flex-col items-center print:hidden\" id=\"third-party--article-mid\" data-module=\"InlineNewsletter\" data-module-source=\"web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\">\n<div class=\"-mx-5 sm:-mx-10 p-5 sm:px-10 xl:-ml-5 lg:mr-0 xl:px-5 bg-accentLight hidden\" data-name=\"subscribed\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-light uppercase text-[30px] leading-8 text-white tracking-[0.01em] mb-0\">\n      We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us.    <\/h2>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/now\/?referrer_post_id=520891&amp;referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2026%2F07%2F29%2Fcovid-fauci-diary-rand-paul-healthcare-pandemic%2F&amp;source=web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\" class=\"border border-white !text-white font-mono uppercase p-5 inline-flex items-center gap-3 hover:bg-white hover:!text-accentLight focus:bg-white focus:!text-accentLight\" data-name=\"donateCTA\" data-action=\"handleDonate\"><br \/>\n      Become a member      <span class=\"font-icons icon-TI_Arrow_02_Right\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n  <\/div>\n<div class=\"group default w-full px-5 hidden\" data-name=\"unsubscribed\">\n<div class=\"px-5 border-[10px] border-accentLight\">\n<div class=\"bg-white -my-2.5 relative block px-4 md:px-5\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-body text-[30px] font-bold tracking-[0.01em] leading-8 mb-0 xl:text-[37px] xl:leading-[39px]\">\n          <span class=\"group-[.subscribed]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Join Our Newsletter          <\/span><br \/>\n          <span class=\"group-[.default]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Thank You For Joining!          <\/span><br \/>\n        <\/h2>\n<p class=\"text-[27px] mb-3.5 font-bold text-accentLight tracking-[0.01em] leading-[29px] font-sans xl:text-[37px] xl:leading-[39px]\">\n          <span class=\"group-[.subscribed]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you.          <\/span><br \/>\n          <span class=\"group-[.default]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?          <\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/now\/?referrer_post_id=520891&amp;referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2026%2F07%2F29%2Fcovid-fauci-diary-rand-paul-healthcare-pandemic%2F&amp;source=web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\" class=\"group-[.default]:hidden border border-accentLight text-accentLight font-sans px-5 py-3.5 inline-flex items-center gap-3 text-[20px] font-bold\" data-action=\"handleDonate\"><br \/>\n          Become a member          <span class=\"font-icons icon-TI_Arrow_02_Right\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"font-sans text-accentLight text-[10px] leading-[13px] text-balance [&amp;_a]:text-accentLight [&amp;_a]:font-bold [&amp;_a:hover]:underline group-[.subscribed]:hidden\">\n<p>By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/privacy-policy\/\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/terms-use\/\">Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(newsletter)[0] --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Paul is focused on trying to place Fauci in prison for not confirming a conspiracy theory, more people are being crushed by the weight of medical debt due to our inadequate system, more people aren\u2019t getting the care they need because of the costs, and more people are dying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fight for universal healthcare coverage remains a vital one, as the uncertainty of when we could face another pandemic looms over us all. The longer the delay, the more unprepared we become for what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whatever Fauci said from his perch at the National Institutes of Health about the virus\u2019s origins, the fact of the matter remains that the government\u2019s interventions during the Covid pandemic were overwhelmingly lifesaving. Its biggest failure \u2014 then as now \u2014 was the inability to provide healthcare coverage for all Americans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There should be accountability for whatever role the government played in the Covid pandemic, but let\u2019s be clear that deaths spiked in large part because of the failures of our healthcare system to cover all Americans, not because of what Fauci said in his diaries.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#Broken #Healthcare #System #Faucis #Diary #Covid #Ravaged #U.S<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies du&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}