To the surprise of absolutely no one, the over-hyped Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the government’s COVID-19 taskforce, has been lying to us. No, this isn’t from some conservative blog, but The New York Times:

How Much Herd Immunity Is Enough?

Scientists initially estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the population needed to acquire resistance to the coronavirus to banish it. Now Dr. Anthony Fauci and others are quietly shifting that number upward.

By Donald G. McNeil Jr. | December 24, 2020 | 5:00 AM EST

At what point does a country achieve herd immunity? What portion of the population must acquire resistance to the coronavirus, either through infection or vaccination, in order for the disease to fade away and life to return to normal?

Since the start of the pandemic, the figure that many epidemiologists have offered has been 60 to 70 percent. That range is still cited by the World Health Organization and is often repeated during discussions of the future course of the disease.

Although it is impossible to know with certainty what the limit will be until we reach it and transmission stops, having a good estimate is important: It gives Americans a sense of when we can hope to breathe freely again.

Recently, a figure to whom millions of Americans look for guidance — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an adviser to both the Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration — has begun incrementally raising his herd-immunity estimate.

In the pandemic’s early days, Dr. Fauci tended to cite the same 60 to 70 percent estimate that most experts did. About a month ago, he began saying “70, 75 percent” in television interviews. And last week, in an interview with CNBC News, he said “75, 80, 85 percent” and “75 to 80-plus percent.”

In a telephone interview the next day, Dr. Fauci acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts. He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks.

Translation: the guy who has been all over CNN and MSNBC, giving us an air of quiet confidence, had been lying to us, and doing so deliberately. Perhaps he was channeling Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men:

Dr Fauci admitted to trying to sell us a bill of goods:

“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent,” Dr. Fauci said. “Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”

The good doctor wanted to sell us something, but the Times reported that roughly 20% of Americans are unwilling to accept the vaccine.

Think about that: if the incoming President is going to keep Dr Fauci as his COVID guru, and Dr Fauci tells him that 90% compliance is required, but the willingness to take the vaccine tops out somewhere around 80%, then we’ll have a government which will try to force people to take the vaccine, and, if the government can’t, then the government will want to keep the economic and social restrictions in place for who knows how long.

So, why would anybody accept the word of an admitted liar?

In the end, the government’s response has been at least as much about control of citizens as it has been about fighting the virus. Of course, the editors of The New York Times, though they ran the story, will never make that connection for you.