Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, reprised his parodied musical act for a second time to serenade Yale School of Medicine graduates, reciting a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” with pandemic-themed lyrics. While the act garnered laughs from the crowd, it further codified the lack of seriousness and responsibility public health officials have expressed while toying with the American public, through unfounded and baseless Covid-19 policy decisions.
While these unelected policy officials go unchecked, one way to hold people like Collins accountable is through implementing “clawback” clauses in employment contracts. By definition, the clauses are “a contractual provision whereby money already paid to an employee must be returned to an employer or benefactor, sometimes with a penalty, [due to] misconduct, scandals, poor performance, or a drop in company profits.” Following the 2008 financial crisis, private companies, especially banks, incorporated clawbacks in employment contracts for senior executives to help “restore the confidence and faith of investors and the public.” In the post-Covid-19 era, we must implement a similar structure to hold public officials accountable for the harm caused by their actions.
Thanks to the unrelenting efforts of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the American public learned this month that Collins finally admitted in a congressional testimony that there was no scientific evidence and data to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s six-foot social-distance guideline. Collins’ admission came several months after his former pal at NIH, Anthony Fauci, conceded in his testimony
