In the past year, Americans have experienced an unusual circumstance. People they’d previously never heard of – or at least thought much about – have wielded an unusual amount of control over their day-to-day lives.

The chief control freak is Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became a household name for putting his palm to his face while then-President Donald Trump spoke at a coronavirus briefing last March.

From that point forward, the narrative was set: Trump was an idiot, and Fauci was infallible.

All it took during the Trump era to become a hero was do something snarky in opposition to Trump. You could be a complete failure at life, your profession or whatever – but hero status was within reach even for the biggest losers.

Take New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was botching his COVID response badly when he wasn’t, allegedly, sexually harassing female employees. He was deified by the anti-Trump media because his news conferences were the opposite of Trump’s.

Cuomo sent thousands to die in nursing homes and covered it up, but hey, screw Trump, am I right?

Back to Fauci, whose government title is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His unofficial title is “Pope of Telling You What You Can’t Do,” whether the evidence backs his edicts or not.

With Trump gone, Fauci remains the embodiment of the now meaningless phrase “listen to the science.” Anyone who questions him becomes public enemy No. 1.

Enter Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who went after Fauci in a Senate hearing March 18, peppering him with good questions about masks and why immune people are forced to wear them.

“Given that no scientific studies have shown significant numbers of reinfections of patients previously infected, or previously vaccinated, what specific studies do you cite to argue that the public should still be wearing masks well into 2022?” Paul asked.

Fauci kept up his argument that even if you have natural immunity from COVID antibodies or you are vaccinated, you must wear a mask – two of them! – for the foreseeable future.

But why? Paul is right, after all. Reinfection rates are statistically insignificant, the vaccines work and there’s no evidence that immune people are spreading the disease. So what’s the deal?

It’s simple: Fauci is trying to manipulate you.

Now, before you freak out that I’ve maligned the “Pope of Nope,” consider that Fauci has admitted manipulating the public before.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the U.S. government’s guidance on masks for the public was not to wear one.

“There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” Fauci said on “60 Minutes” before poo-pooing their effectiveness. “When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.”

The reason for the manipulation? Supply worries. There weren’t enough masks for doctors, so Fauci discouraged their use among the general public. You could argue this was a reasonable decision, but you cannot argue that it was anything other than manipulation.

Fast-forward to December, when Fauci admitted moving the goalposts on herd immunity in an interview with the New York Times:

“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70% to 75%. … Then, when newer surveys said 60% or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85. We need to have some humility here. …. We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70% to 90%. But I’m not going to say 90%.”

Fauci continues to ignore those who have already been infected in his herd immunity calculations, according to Dr. Marty Makary at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Fauci wants 70% to 90% of the U.S. to have protection. If 60% of the population gets the vaccine, and 55% of us have natural COVID immunities – whether we know it or not – according to Makary’s estimation, we are nearing herd immunity now.

If Fauci includes naturally immune people in his herd immunity calculations, he likely thinks fewer people will get the vaccine. Again, he’s manipulating us to achieve an outcome – more shots. Fauci is very much an “ends justify the means” bureaucrat.

And why the continued mask theater? More manipulation. A portion of the population is skeptical of the vaccine. If Fauci lets vaccinated or naturally immune people take off their masks, the unvaccinated population will likely follow suit.

But the flip side is that if Fauci (and President Joe Biden, for that matter) continue to argue that even fully protected people cannot take off their masks and live their lives, then vaccine-hesitant people will become even less likely to sign up. “If I can’t resume normal life, why get the shot?” they might think.

As with most topics, honesty is the best policy. Paul and Makary are right – about reinfection rates, masks, herd immunity and the resumption of normal life in America.

We are achingly close to normalcy if people continue to get their shots, which data happily shows is happening at an increasing rate. In fact, Biden’s White House is worried that by mid-May there will be more supply than demand for the vaccine, according to the New York Times.

So, get your vaccine as soon as you can. Live your life. Take care of your neighbors and be responsible.

But understand that a fair bit of the public health advice we’ve been given for the last year has been to manipulate the public instead of “following the science.”

– Scott Jennings is a Republican adviser, CNN commentator and partner at RunSwitch Public Relations. He can be reached at Scott@RunSwitchPR.com or on Twitter at @ScottJenningsKY.