- In a new interview, Fauci lashed out at those calling for his prosecution
- Speaking on CNN, the elderly doctor asked, “Suse me for what?”
- On Friday, the House voted unanimously to release information about the origins of COVID-19
Dr. Anthony Fauci has hit back at those who want to see him prosecuted for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The now-retired Fauci, 82, called his accusers “insane” during an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta Saturday.
He said he and his family continue to receive death threats over his response to the 2020 pandemic — months after he stepped down from his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Acosta also asked Fauci about Elon Musk’s tweet in December in which he mocked transgender pronouns while calling for criminal charges. The message read: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”
“What’s your reaction to that?” asked the host.
“There’s no response to that craziness, Jim. Sue me for what? What are they talking about? I wish I could find out what they are talking about. I think they’re just going off the deep end,” said the country’s top infectious disease expert.
“It just doesn’t make sense to say something like that, and it’s actually irresponsible,” he bellowed.
On how his family is dealing with the negative publicity surrounding his stewardship of the pandemic, Fauci said it was “difficult.”
“I mean, they don’t like me getting death threats all the time. Every time someone stands up and spouts some nonsense that is misinformation, disinformation and outright lies, someone somewhere decides they want to harm me and or my family,” he said.
“That’s the part of it that’s really unhappy… The rest is just madness, the things they say.” But it does have a negative effect if people take it seriously and take it out on you and your family.’
The doctor described the view that it was “unacceptable” to have a “political view of a public health problem” as these issues create a “common enemy.”
During his tenure between 1984 and 2022, Fauci dealt with thorny issues surrounding health crises, from HIV/AIDS to avian flu and Ebola.
The seasoned immunologist has served as an adviser to seven U.S. presidents, starting with Republican Ronald Reagan, and spent more than 50 years in public service.
At the time of the Musk tweet, the White House expressed its full support for Fauci.
“They are disgusting and disconnected from reality, and we will continue to call that out and be very clear about that,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters afterwards.
On Friday, the House voted unanimously to release US intelligence information about the origins of COVID-19, an overwhelming show of bipartisan support near the third anniversary of the start of the deadly pandemic.
The 419-0 vote was final congressional approval of the bill, which sent it to President Joe Biden’s desk. It’s unclear if the president will sign the measure into law, and the White House said the matter is under investigation.
“I haven’t made that decision yet,” Biden said late Friday when asked if he would sign the bill.
The debate in the House of Representatives was short and sweet: Americans have questions about how the deadly virus originated and what can be done to prevent future outbreaks.
“The American public deserves answers to every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
That includes, he said, “how this virus was made and, specifically, whether it was a natural occurrence or the result of a lab-related event.”
Led by Republicans, the focus on the origins of the virus comes as the House earlier this week launched a select committee with a hearing that deepened theories about how the pandemic started.
It offers a rare moment of bipartisanship despite the often heated rhetoric about the origins of the coronavirus and questions about the response to the virus from US health officials, including Fauci.
House Republicans have used their new majority power to investigate all aspects of the pandemic, including its origins, as well as what they believe were officials’ efforts to cover up the fact that it leaked from a lab in Wuhan.
Days earlier, the GOP released emails showing that Fauci had commissioned a February 2020 paper to refute the possibility that COVID originated in a lab — before the research was announced weeks later at a White House news conference. published.
In February, Republicans sent letters to Fauci, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, Secretary of Health Xavier Beccera and others as part of their investigative efforts.
The letters require no cooperation from recipients. But announcing the Republican personnel report in December, Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, chairman of the virus subcommittee, that lawmakers would issue subpoenas if potential witnesses did not cooperate.
Republicans have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May that the National Institutes of Health was funding “gain of function” research — the practice of improving a virus in a lab to explore its potential impact in the real world to study – in a virology laboratory in Wuhan.
R-Texas Senator Ted Cruz even urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci’s statements.
Fauci called that criticism “nonsense” at the time.
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