How many times can Dr. Anthony Fauci be wrong before we all decide to simply ignore the smug publicity hound in charge of America’s coronavirus response?

After months of ginning up hysteria and urging schools to remain virtual - when he wasn’t posing for fashion layouts in magazines or preening on CNN, that is - Fauci is now saying what those of us without medical degrees but with common sense said in March: 

Reopen the schools.

“The default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school or to get them back to school,” Fauci said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “If you look at the data the spread among children and from children is not really big at all.”

No kidding, doc.

Sadly, we can’t “keep” schools open because most public schools have been closed since March. Because of Fauci and the panic he’s pushed for the past nine months.

Oh, and some credit must go to the media, which dutifully treated the doctor like a god and never questioned his pronouncements, no matter how incredible they seemed.

As a direct result of Fauci’s terrible advice, American schoolchildren are depressed, fat and failing. Many have been sitting home for nine months, learning little as they serve as guinea pigs in a fear-fueled experiment in education.

The “data” that Fauci referred to has been out there for more than half a year. What took him so long to call for schools to reopen?

I hate to say I told you so, but I and some others ranted about the school closings from the start. As a result, Fauci’s disciples called us “covidiots” and accused us of wanting to kill teachers and the elderly.

In June I wrote repeatedly about Gov. Ralph Northam’s unworkable plan to reopen Virginia schools that originally would allow only 13 kids on a school bus that holds 77 and just a handful of kids in each classroom.

Schools are still mostly closed in Virginia and with infections spiking, likely to stay that way. Tragic.

Fauci now claims that he always supported open schools. That is not true, as investigative reporter, Jordan Schachtel documented yesterday on his website, Dossier.

According to Schachtel, on March 12, Fauci called for a nationwide school shutdown. On April 12 he supported Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s decision to close New York City schools. A day later he criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis for trying to reopen Florida schools too quickly. In May he rolled out the frightening specter of kids contracting an inflammatory reaction to Covid-19, similar to Kawasaki Syndrome, which turned out to be wildly inflated. 

Throughout the summer Fauci cautioned against reopening schools in places with large numbers of infections and as late as September 20 he encouraged schools to “pause” their openings as cases spiked.

With CDC Director Robert Redfield recently saying that the safest place for kids K-12 is in school, it appears Fauci was forced to follow suit, perhaps to save face.

But the damage that’s already been done to American kids with these cruel school closings is immeasurable.

It’s been child abuse on a national scale. And Fauci bears much of the blame.