Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has (like everyone else) dealt with a lot over the past 18 months or so. He previously expressed frustrations at anti-vaxxers, along with conspiracy theorists who blame him for the virus emerging in Wuhan [with accusations that the National Institute of Health (NIH) provided financial resources for gain-of-function research], and Fauci’s also dealt with threats against his family’s safety. Things got scary, so much so that former Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was banned from Twitter for his incitement of extreme violence against Fauci. Yes, Bannon really did call for the doctor’s head on a pike, and these days, Fauci’s completely had it with his critics.
Via Mediaite, Fauci sat down with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, and yes, he talked about himself in third person, but he also threw down the emphasis: “If you are trying to get at me as a public health official and scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you are attacking science.”
WATCH: Dr. Fauci referred to himself in the third person while unleashing on his critics in a heated rant on MSNBC, saying that when you attack "Dr. Anthony Fauci, you're attacking science." pic.twitter.com/3gL7V9uwbu
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 9, 2021
Fauci continued, characterizing the attacks on him as not only literally dangerous for their threats of imminent danger but because they completely discount the value of science. “All of the things that I have spoken about consistently from the very beginning have been fundamentally based on science,” he insisted. “Sometimes those things were inconvenient truths for people, and there was pushback against me.”
What got under Fauci’s skin today was Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn feeding another conspiracy theory about how Fauci was somehow in cahoots with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on how the shape the COVID-19 discourse on the social media platform. “I don’t want to be pejorative against a united States senator,” Fauci explained. “But I have no idea what she’s talking about.” He went on to characterize Blackburn’s words as “painfully ridiculous.”
You can watch the rest of Fauci’s rant below.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has evidently had enough of the increasing criticism being pointed his way — particularly from the political right.
He told MSNBC that "you have to be asleep" not to see an attack on him is an attack on science. https://t.co/5mqXffZX0P
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 9, 2021