Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently said, “It’s inconvenient from a societal standpoint, from an economic standpoint to go through this." It is interesting sometimes that a brief comment can reveal the heart and mind — and in this instance, a special degree of tone deafness.

Two weeks ago, at least 3.3 million people filed for unemployment benefits. Last week, 6.8 million more joined the ranks of the unemployed. On Thursday, an additional 6.6 million workers were added to the rolls of the unemployed.

For Fauci, is it merely a societal or economic inconvenience that about 17 million workers are unemployed because of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, with many more to come in the weeks and months ahead? The economic calamity lies largely with the origination of policies resulting from Fauci's recommendations.

Fauci has admitted that the models he relies on are unreliable. The models, and their panic-inducing projections, have seemingly been revised down every couple of days. Fauci insists this because of his policy prescriptions, but time and data from the United States and other nations will reveal whether that is true.

We have heard Fauci say the economic cost and societal impacts of his policies were not considered when he devised his epidemic response plan. But the question is whether the medicine he prescribed will prove to be more harmful than the disease in the long term.

Many businesses have been shuttered forever. It will be almost impossible for countless other small businesses to reopen once the government gives the all-clear for the economy to restart.

It is tragic that thousands of people in the country have died or may yet succumb to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. But we also must remember that millions of people have had their lives and livelihoods permanently altered because of the government response to this virus. While our government may make promises and help make things better once the hysteria subsides, there is nothing our leaders will be able to do to make everything completely right again.

Fauci is a respected healthcare professional, who has contributed a great deal to his country. But he can no longer be one of the primary voices in this crisis, especially not after his assertion that the economic effects and devastation from this shutdown are merely inconvenient.

Fauci and his team have not always had a clear pathway to assess this epidemic. Back in January, Fauci downplayed the risk of the coronavirus to the public. A study, which may have been the catalyst for many of the draconian lockdown policies in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, that predicted the deaths of over 2 million Americans and 510,000 from the U.K., was recently revised to predict just 20,000 fatalities in the U.K.

That’s not a trivial revision — that study affected the lives and livelihoods of millions, if not billions, of people around the world.

Fauci and his team insisted that the best-case outcome for the virus was between 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities stemming from the coronavirus. But that was before the number was revised down to 75,000. And, that was before it was revised down again to 60,000. Surely, more revisions are to come.

Case fatality rates include all deaths of anyone with COVID-19, or the symptoms of the virus. These are classified as a virus-caused death regardless of other health issues that might have contributed to the death. This method of counting is promulgated by Fauci's associate Deborah Birx. It almost sounds as if she is trying to boost the fatality rate.

Birx also recently indicated that we should not open up the country yet because there might be a second time around for the virus. Has she considered the economic destruction she is content with wreaking on the nation? One wonders if she has thought about the emotional toll — the suicides, the increase in domestic and child abuse, drug and alcohol dependence, and a host of additional societal pathologies. Has she considered the loss of life-savings, businesses, and capital?

President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and their team have done the best job they could to save lives. They had limited information due to manipulation and deception by the World Health Organization and the Chinese Communist Party. The Trump administration was also hindered by the emotional propaganda spewed by leftists in the media and left-wing politicians whose sole purpose in life is to attack the president.

The longer government-imposed lockdowns go on, the more people will lose their jobs — millions more. Thousands of businesses will close their doors. The physical and emotional toll from this self-imposed economic destruction will be worse than the doomsday prophets projected.

Fauci and his team of experts deserve some credit for mitigating the spread of this virus. But they should no longer be the primary voices at the table. Fauci and Birx have indicated pretty strongly that they do not consider the greater needs of the country.

Like us, many people we talk to sympathize with and grieve for the victims of the coronavirus, as they do for victims of any disease. But they increasingly feel neglected and forgotten — their lives and futures matter, too. It is time to open the country and protect the most vulnerable in a targeted way.

Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican, represents Arizona's fifth congressional district and is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Ken Buck, a Republican, represents Colorado's fourth congressional district.