The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: fauci
Rick Scott

Senate Republicans Smear Fauci With Old And Misleading Video Clip

On March 16, the PBS program American Masters posted an excerpt from its March 21 episode showing footage of Dr. Anthony Fauci in June 2021 encouraging citizens to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) shared a part of the video on Monday, misleadingly claiming it contradicted Biden’s September 2022 observation that the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

The video shows Fauci, then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, going door to door in Washington, D.C., with Mayor Muriel Bowser. At the time, the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines had proven to be at least 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic cases of COVID-19 in a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Weeks after the footage was taped, it became apparent that the growth of the delta variant had rendered the inoculations less capable of preventing the disease, though they remained safe and effective tools to reduce the severity of illness.

After right-wing talk show host Clay Travis tweeted an excerpt of the footage on Monday showing Bowser and Fauci trying to explain the science and process behind the creation of the vaccines, Scott shared it without mentioning that the video was nearly two years old.

“What happened to Biden stating COVID was over when he opened our borders?” he asked. “Government once again attempting to use fear to control our lives. Great to see Americans sticking up for themselves.”

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt also shared part of the clip, attacking Fauci and accusing him of changing his positions on the use of masks to curb the spread of the virus.

“Fauci is a fraud,” Schmitt wrote. “This is the man who funded Gain of Function research then lied about it. He privately told friends masks were ineffective then wanted masks imposed on everyone else Fauci should be held accountable.”

While Fauci urged people in the early days of the pandemic to save the limited supply of personal protective equipment for health care workers, he later urged widespread mask usage after it became apparent that they helped curb the spread from asymptomatic people infected with the virus.

Other Republican lawmakers also shared a segment of the American Masters video that showed a citizen questioning the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Anthony Fauci isn’t just content to be the most destructive bureaucrat in American history, he also wants to be the most dangerous door-to-door salesman in American history,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley wrote, “The new season of American Horror Story … Fauci at the Door.”

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

DeSantis Appointee Said Fauci 'Should Face Firing Squad'

DeSantis Appointee Said Fauci 'Should Face Firing Squad'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been featuring anti-vaxxer Dr. Jon Ward at COVID-19 events as he positions himself for a 2024 presidential run. Ward said in a podcast appearance last year that Dr. Anthony “Fauci should face a firing squad” because of his work.

Ward is a Florida dermatologist who, as Politico recently reported, has become “a central figure in DeSantis’ Covid-19 events.” He appeared at a COVID-19 press conference with DeSantis on January 17. In August 2022, DeSantis appointed Ward to the Northwest Florida State College District Board of Trustees.

Ward has linked the death of Lisa Marie Presley to “Pfizer and Moderna” and told parents to lie to schools about their children’s COVID-19 history.

In a statement to Politico, a DeSantis spokesperson defended the governor and praised Ward, stating: “We thank Dr. Ward for lending his time and expertise to our press conference to ensure medical freedom is preserved in Florida.”

Ward has regularly appeared on podcasts and radio programs to discuss medical issues. During the September 8, 2022, edition of The Driveway Liberty Podcast, Ward piggybacked off of DeSantis’ statement that he wanted to chuck Fauci across the Potomac River by stating: “I think Fauci should face a firing squad myself.”

JON WARD: It’s just one of those things where I say Fauci by pushing only drugs that were Big Pharma drugs, by not being willing to tout very cheap, inexpensive, widely available medicines, Fauci killed hundreds of thousands of people. When Ron DeSantis said he would like to take that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac, I said, “Let me be the next one to chuck him across the Potomac.”

CO-HOST: Right. Yeah. So I think the next question — you’ve been through all the medical ethics classes that I sure as hell haven’t — what should happen to these people?

WARD: For Fauci, given what we know about the gain of function research in Wuhan and for him knowingly collaborating with international scientists to publish a paper claiming that there was no way that COVID was manmade and that it for sure was natural, I think Fauci should face a firing squad myself.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Praised By Republican Presidents, Fauci Is Now Target Of GOP Attack Ads

Praised By Republican Presidents, Fauci Is Now Target Of GOP Attack Ads

Republican presidents of the past welcomed Dr. Anthony Fauci’s expertise, from Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to his son George W. Bush. It was under the younger President Bush, in fact, that Fauci received the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in 2008.

“For his determined and aggressive efforts to help others live longer and healthier lives,” Bush declared, “I'm proud to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.”

But that was before the Trumpification of the GOP and before Fauci was demonized by the far-right MAGA movement. In an article published by Politico on February 4, reporter Stephanie Murray stresses that an abundance of Republican ads are trying to fire up the GOP base with anti-Fauci messaging.

Anti-Fauci messages in Republican ads, Murray notes, are coming from everyone from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Dr. Mehmet Oz — who is running for the U.S. Senate seat presently occupied by Sen. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania — to Mike Gibbons, a U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio.

In Gibbons’ ad, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky declares, “I’ve stood strong against the mandates of Dr. Fauci, but I need help. That’s why I’m endorsing Mike Gibbons for Senate. I know Mike Gibbons will join me in demanding that Fauci is immediately fired and removed from office.”

Oz’s ad, meanwhile, finds him saying, “The big government medical establishment came after me because I dared to challenge Fauci on COVID.”

“Anthony Fauci has been a GOP target for nearly two years, as the party cast the president’s chief medical adviser as a villain for pandemic-era policies,” Murray explains. “Now, he’s emerging as a star in Republican campaign commercials. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is appearing in spots across the airwaves this week as primary elections take shape and Republicans seek to tap into his unpopularity with the GOP base.”

In 2008, President George W. Bush was praising Fauci for working hard to save lives. In 2022, demonizing him is a way for MAGA Republicans to prove their street cred.

“Fauci is a particularly useful foil for GOP candidates in primaries because of Republican hostility toward his performance,” Murray observes. “Sixty-two percent of Republicans said Fauci was doing a ‘poor’ job handling the pandemic, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll. Meanwhile, 41 percent of Democrats said Fauci was doing an ‘excellent’ job in his handling of the pandemic — compared to just six percent of Republicans. The poll surveyed 2005 registered voters from January 28-30.”

The 81-year-old Fauci has served in the United States government since the late 1960s, and he was appointed director of NIAID under President Reagan in 1984.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Fauci Warns White House Is Making ‘A Big Mistake’ Attacking Him

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Officials in the Trump White House have recently engaged in what could be described as a passive-aggressive effort to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci. Although President Donald Trump hasn't tried to outright fire the expert immunologist from his coronavirus task force — not yet, anyway — his White House allies have been producing "opposition research" against him.

And Fauci, in an interview with Peter Nicholas and Ed Yong of The Atlantic, assured the journalists that he has no plans to resign from the task force.

Fauci's tone during the interview was respectful of Trump and far from scathing, but he also made it clear that he stands by all of his recent coronavirus-related warnings. Asked about the Trump White House's opposition research against him, Fauci responded, "That was not particularly a good thing to do. Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that. When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president. And I don't really want to hurt the president. But that's what's happening. I told him I thought it was a big mistake. That doesn't serve any good purpose for what we're trying to do."

The 79-year-old Fauci was also asked about an op-ed by Peter Navarro, one of Trump's top economic advisers, that appeared in USA Today and attacked the immunologist's credibility. Fauci told The Atlantic, "I can't explain Peter Navarro. He's in a world by himself. So, I don't even want to go there."

During the spring, Fauci was often featured at the White House's coronavirus press briefings. But that isn't happening now.

Fauci, however, told The Atlantic that he is still talking to others on the task force and in the White House on a regular basis, including Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Robert Redfield (director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Steve Hahn. The task force is headed by Vice President Mike Pence.

When Fauci was asked to "update us on your relationship with the president," he responded: "Well, the scene has changed a bit. When we were having frequent press briefings, I had the opportunity to have a personal one-on-one to talk to the president. I haven't done that in a while."

During the interview, Fauci spoke candidly about the recent surge in COVID-19 infections in Arizona, Texas, Florida and other states — asserting that such states need more social distancing, not less.

"Even though we are in the middle of a setback now — you can't deny that; look at the numbers, you're dealing with 40,000 to 60,000 infections in a day — it doesn't mean we're going to be defeated," Fauci told The Atlantic. "But states that are in trouble right now, if those states pause and say, 'OK, we're going to do it right, everyone wear a mask, bars closed, no congregating in crowds, keep your distance, protect the vulnerable' — if we do that for a few weeks in a row, I'll guarantee you those numbers will come down."