Two days ago, when most were thinking about the joy of the upcoming holidays, Anthony Fauci, the country’s No. 1 public health enemy, had ruining Christmas on his mind. The man actually suggested Americans demand that their guests show them proof of vaccination before allowing them in their homes. If such a comment doesn’t set off a public campaign demanding he be fired, then this country is in deeper trouble than we thought.

Appearing Wednesday on a Washington Post Live interview, Fauci said Americans who invite others into their homes should “essentially ask and maybe require that people show evidence that they are vaccinated, or give their honest and good faith word that they have been vaccinated.”

Does the good doctor, whose name and authoritarian urges have inspired critics to coin the terms “Faucist” and “Faucism,” understand that he said, in effect, Americans should be demanding “your papers, please” of their friends and family? Was he unaware that signs saying ​​”Unvaccinated Not Welcome” now have been seen in Germany? Or was he inspired by them?

(To be fair, it appears the “signs” might be the work of someone making a political statement rather than a warning from the shopkeeper. But the fact is, Germany is locking the “unvaccinated out of public life.” If someone is making a point, it’s not an exaggeration.)

As dangerous as novel coronavirus has been, the response to the pandemic by elected and unelected officials has been worse. Lockdowns cost livelihoods – and lives. Delayed health screenings and surgeries have caused premature deaths, while the unemployment shock caused by shuttering the economy will eventually have a similar effect on mortality.

At the forefront of this rancid stew of public health policy has been Fauci. And not only has his performance as a physician been miserable, he’s obfuscated, evaded and outright lied before Congress in his position as a U.S. government employee. He deserves to be fired for dishonesty as well as his incompetence. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky believes that Fauci should even be prosecuted and imprisoned for lying to Congress, which has “prosecuted other people” and “selectively gone after Republicans.”

Though he has a medical degree and a residency, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, should not be honoured with the title of “Dr.” He’s a career bureaucrat with too much power, and too much influence, both of which have been imparted to him by Democrats and the media, not for his achievements but because he was willing to contradict Donald Trump.

That he has positioned himself as the unchallengeable god of science is as chilling as his suggestion that Americans need to show their papers to freely move around the country. He’s a fearmonger without conscience, a petty tyrant who feels no guilt.

We don’t expect Fauci to ever get what he should have coming to him, though, so the best we can do is follow Paul’s advice.

“Let’s not live in fear because Dr. Fauci is promulgating things that are unscientific just to scare you,” Paul said last week. “If you’ve been vaccinated or if you’ve had the disease, live your life and ignore this man.”

That’s a doctor’s recommendation we’ll be glad to take.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board