So we're doing this again.

That was my immediate reaction when I learned Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary was being released ahead of his appearance before a U.S. Senate committee. As I read some of the early reports from that Senate hearing, it seems clear the purpose was to attack Fauci's character rather than try to learn anything meaningful from the COVID-19 pandemic that could help us in the future.

Let me be clear: I'm not trying to defend Fauci as a person. I don't know him any more than most of his critics do. Maybe the career bureaucrat did enjoy some of the celebrity he achieved as the public face of a federal government agency during a health crisis that ultimately cost more than 7 million people worldwide their lives.

He and others in charge most certainly made mistakes in response to a pandemic that no one of our generation had ever lived through before.

Here's what I believe, though: Those steps that government officials recommended and in some cases mandated – masks, social distancing, business and school closures – helped slow the spread of the disease so hospitals and other health care providers wouldn't be overwhelmed.

Even then, reasonable people understood the precautionary measures put in place weren't going to stop COVID's spread. The goal all along was to try to contain it.

Fauci's decisions are a major reason I survived COVID-19

As someone who ended up taking the last available spot in an intensive care unit at a small Colorado hospital, that matters to me. I'm still alive today because of decisions that were made back then.

And it infuriates me that some people still want to........

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