Several education leaders who pushed for schools to remain on extended lockdowns long past a time when the COVID-19 virus was a problem are now attempting to portray themselves as champions of reopening schools as more studies show how harmful lockdowns were.

Many left-leaning journalists, politicians, and scientists have recently shifted their views on the lockdowns, acknowledging that the measures they supported may have been excessive, the Daily Caller reported. Among them, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Randi Weingarten, the head of the country’s largest teachers union, have drawn attention for misleading the public about their role in the shutdowns during the pandemic.

For her part, Weingarten recently claimed before a House committee that she worked early and often to get schools reopened because “we knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools,” but the statement was so inaccurate that it was fact-checked by Twitter.

AFT President Randi Weingarten: "We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools." pic.twitter.com/1qNL05VD3u

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 26, 2023

Fauci held the top position as a coronavirus advisor to both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. As the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he was in charge of the most influential agency within the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) for infectious diseases. He was a prominent figure in media, providing commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic.

He advocated for mask-wearing and cautioned against lifting mask mandates, supported vaccination efforts, and endorsed vaccination requirements in appropriate settings. He also supported restrictions on businesses and schools in areas where COVID-19 cases and deaths were at certain levels.

Last week, Fauci said, in an interview with The New York Times, that he had no direct influence in the COVID-19 lockdowns. “Show me a school that I shut down and show me a factory that I shut down,” he said. “Never. I never did.”

That is factually true and utterly misleading.

During the early days of the pandemic, while Fauci did not have the authority to mandate lockdowns himself, many political leaders and institutions looked to his guidance and that of agencies like the CDC when deciding to implement lockdown measures. This effectively made Fauci and the CDC the guiding force behind such actions.

Fauci did admit as much in the same NYT interview, saying, “I gave a public-health recommendation that echoed the CDC’s recommendation, and people made a decision based on that.”

“So we looked at it from a purely public-health standpoint. It was for other people to make broader assessments — people whose positions include but aren’t exclusively about public health,” he added.

The Daily Caller noted further: “As for Weingarten, her role in shutdowns was far more direct than even Fauci’s in shutting down schools in particular. As the head of America’s second-largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), she directly led fights against school re-openings that kept millions of kids at home.”

The report added:

Even after working directly with the CDC to develop re-opening guidelines for schools during the pandemic, Weingarten called re-openings “reckless and unsafe.” She said in 2021 that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s insistence on re-opening would kill “millions” of people.

Growing scientific evidence indicates the detrimental impact of lockdowns on mental health and the significant decline in learning among students during remote learning periods. Consequently, some proponents of lockdowns are beginning to reconsider their stance.