This. And note that this approach also allows for the conclusion of "and maybe he got some of the response wrong, even way-wrong." Because people were figuring this shit out on the fly, and coming up with the best solutions they thought applicable in the moment. And there were indeed alternate/counter-approaches that were out there that they opted against -- correctly, wrongly, and sometimes still undetermined. And on top of THAT, the choices were often "bad choice A" vs. "bad choice B," and they had to pick the less bad one. And then get attacked for "look at this! The option he picked was bad!" No shit. ALL options are bad.
And finally, the lambasting him as some evil mastermind director of some sinister conspiracy is the thing that pisses me off the most. Over my not-short life, I've had to deal with countless government bureaucrats, functionaries, administrators, and sometimes quite senior folks in that respect. My old man was a federal regulator in the field; I have had to deal with regulators at various levels throughout my career; I have friends and family who have been and are involved at all levels of the government (including people who are on a first-name basis with senators and presidents).
And through all of that, I HAVE met a few "true believers." For example, I had to deal with an old hippie gal at the EPA who wouldn't let go of an issue, with little vision of the practicality of things. But 99.9% of the time....these people are just fucking people, man. They have no sinister agenda, no secret plan. They have a mission/purpose that is no secret (Fauci worked for the infectious disease agency....which deals with...infectious diseases). They pursue that mission using the best available information, with good intentions, to the best of their ability. We don't really hear about it when they succeed, and YES, sometimes they fail (like literally every other human being, public or private sector). Was Fauci involved in research of coronoaviruses? Shit, it would have been criminally stupid and impossible to explain if he HADN'T BEEN - they had long ago been flagged as a key infectious disease risk in the wake of our human experience with SARS and MERS. "A-HA! Fauci was involved in researching coronaviruses [because they were a known fucking risk of giving rise to a pandemic] and waddaya know, a coronavirus caused a pandemic! DO THE MATH, SHEEPLE!"
I worked closely with lots of people in official positions responding to the pandemic. There was no secret agenda, no hidden plan. People were dying, resources were strained, solutions were hard to find. They did the best they could. The fucking psychotic Republican need to find a demon everywhere they look (gee, every accusation is a confession) is fucking infuriating, assholish, and flat-out evil. It's one of several things I hate them for.
Fauci may have done a great job, he may have done a terrible job....odds are, he did a job that was something in between. But characterizing him as an evil mass murderer and shit is psychotic, twisted, and sick. And people who do that are psychotic, twisted, and sick. And I hate them. A lot.