Thanks to the intrepid work of Senator Dr Rand Paul, we have now been able to read the secret diary of Dr Anthony Fauci (aged 85 ¾). They are surprisingly similar to those of Adrian Mole (aged 13¾), both marked by earnest self-importance as they record their daily observations about their life, loves and their imagined genius.

Mole at least had the excuse of being an awkward teenager, but what excuse can the gerontocrat Fauci offer? As it turned out, none. Grilled in the US Senate last week on the striking disparity between his diary entries and what he told the world, all Fauci could offer was the invocation of his right not to incriminate himself under the Fifth Amendment a stunning 111 times.

Given that former President Biden, or his autopen, had already granted Fauci a full and unconditional pre-emptive pardon, you might have thought that he had nothing to lose. But Fauci wasn’t taking any chances. He even refused to answer questions on such tricky topics as the day of the week and the colour of his tie.

Fauci is right to be wary. The president cannot pardon state crimes, conduct occurring outside of the nominated period, or civil liability. Indeed, there is an active effort by several Republican-led state attorneys general to examine whether state law, rather than federal law, could provide a basis for action against Fauci.

The Attorneys General of Louisana, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida have said they want to investigate Fauci’s role in the Covid-19 response, including allegations of misleading statements, suppression of scientific debate and whether any state laws may have been violated.

What the record now shows is that there are striking differences between Fauci’s private confessions to his dear diary and what he said publicly.

For example, in February 2020, Fauci admitted privately that the infection fatality rate was probably 0.2–0.3 per cent – similar to a bad flu – while only a few weeks later he publicly described it as 1–3 per cent, overstating the danger by up to 15 times.

That exaggerated danger was used to justify everything from masking and social distancing to some of the most disastrous policies such as closing schools and locking down states.

Fauci later tried to distance himself from those decisions, but the diary entry for March 15, 2020 shows him bragging about persuading Bill de Blasio, then Mayor of New York City, to ‘close the NYC schools’.

Fauci also wrote that he had a similar conversation with Ann O’Leary, then chief of staff to California Governor Gavin Newsom, and recorded that Newsom had decided to close schools and bars/restaurants after seeing Fauci’s television appearances.

While Fauci’s exaggeration about the gravity of the virus was wreaking havoc on the US economy, Fauci wrote in his diary on February 27, 2020: ‘Stock Market crashing! Amazing day!’ And indeed, it was all amazing for Dr Fauci being fawned on by celebrities.

More than a smoking gun, the diaries reveal Fauci’s embarrassing pleasure in recording that his fan club thought he was smoking hot. This is all the weirder because it occurs in the context of the banning of effective repurposed drugs, coercing the use of ineffective and dangerous drugs such as Remdesivir and a mounting toll of economic, social and personal harm.

Thus, in April 2020, when the estimate was that some 60,000 people in America had died of Covid, Fauci’s diary entry for 7 April, 2020, reads: ‘Press still hot and heavy about me. Multiple stories per day directly or indirectly involving me.’

Or this on 13 May, 2020: ‘Had a wonderful Instagram discussion… with Julia Roberts. She was absolutely fabulous.’ Fauci claims he is ‘somewhat’ embarrassed that when he appeared on the Zoom screen, Roberts said ‘Oh my God. It’s Dr Fauci; he is here.’

Or this from 21 May, 2020: ‘My national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked-about person in the country.’

As time rolls on and the deaths mount, the names keep dropping. A February 2021 entry records: ‘Had great call with Barbra Streisand… I told her that I work listening to her songs on Alexa. She really did not know what Alex was. I accidentally butt-called her later in the evening.’

Amazingly, for a man who seems to have an ego the size of the planet, he wrote in 2005, ‘One of the by-products of being a perfectionist and constantly trying to improve myself are sobering feelings of low-grade anxiety and a nagging sense of inadequacy. This anxiety keeps me humble.’

Meanwhile, those who characterised the infection fatality rate accurately, such as the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration – Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff and Sunetra Gupta – and argued against lockdowns and for the protection of the vulnerable, were mocked and demonised by Fauci who was able to use his control of tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars earmarked for research to reward those who followed his line and to starve of funding, those who dissented.

He also demonised those who listened to the scientists he discredited, and bucked his authoritarian China doctrine, such as Florida governor Ron de Santis, whom he excoriated as ‘disgraceful’.

Florida under DeSantis mandated that schools stay open for students from the autumn of 2020, and reopened its bars, restaurants and beaches. In 2021, DeSantis used state powers to prevent schools, local governments and businesses from imposing vaccine mandates.

Like Sweden, the Sunshine State became one of the few beacons of freedom in a dark, dystopian world.

As Justice Louis D. Brandeis memorably put it in 1932: ‘It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.’

It is a reminder of the power and importance of US federalism but also of the sorry fact that Australian federalism offered no similar safeguard.

It is true that no state equalled the devastation wreaked on Victoria under Labor’s Dan Andrews, but too many governments followed the same script. We had plenty of miniature Faucis. What we never had was an Australian Ron DeSantis—someone prepared to trust the evidence, defend liberty and withstand the hysteria.