During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union this weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health shut down the utterly ridiculous claim from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) that he had “over-hyped” COVID-19, just as he had supposedly “over-hyped” AIDS. Fauci has been in public health for a long time, including during the early stages of the AIDS crisis. Both ailments have claimed the lives of staggering numbers of people, and it’s been difficult to get a biological handle on both of the underlying pathogens. Does Johnson have any meaningful grasp of the (very) basic facts that underpin these circumstances?
Fauci criticizes Fox News for silence after pundit Lara Logan compares him to Nazi doctor https://t.co/SBpBFjnoI7
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 3, 2021
As Fauci put it on CNN, reacting to Johnson’s remarks:
‘How do you respond to something as preposterous as that? Over-hyping AIDS? It’s killed over 750,000 Americans, and 36 million people worldwide. How do you over-hype that? Over-hyping Covid? It’s already killed 780,000 Americans and over 5 million people worldwide. So I don’t have any clue of what he’s talking about.’
Check out Fauci’s comments below:
Fauci on Sen. Ron Johnson saying he's "overhyped" Covid: "How do you respond to something as preposterous as that? … Overhyping Covid? It's already killed 780,000 Americans and over 5 million people worldwide. So I don't have any clue of what he's talking about." pic.twitter.com/ENgXo6jJIK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 5, 2021
Previously, Fauci has — on more than one occasion — addressed the self-confident yet misguided antics of GOP Senators. In one recent interview, Fauci commented, in reference to such individuals: “I’m just going to do my job, and I’m going to be saving lives, and they’re going to be lying.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has even called for Fauci’s prosecution over supposed lies to Congress about U.S. funding of viral research work overseas, and across the conservative media echo chamber, Fauci is frequently the target of bizarre and simply deranged conspiracy theories. Sure, he’s not even in charge of many of the areas of public policy that conservatives are most upset about — he’s a presidential adviser and leader of research efforts, but that hasn’t stopped the attacks.
"It's an insult to all the people who suffered and died under the Nazi regime in the concentration camps," Dr. Fauci says. https://t.co/qNQ2PIKo8u
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 5, 2021
Fox News commentator Lara Logan even recently compared Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called “Angel of Death” who performed horrifying procedures on prisoners at the Auschwitz death camp under the Nazi regime. Again: do these people have any meaningful grasp of the basic reality of what’s going on around them? Do they think that being inconvenienced because of refusing to get a known-to-be safe vaccine — when people already have to get all sorts of other vaccines all the time — is the same as being in a Nazi death camp? The self-centered ignorance is utterly humiliating. Among other issues, Fauci subsequently observed that Logan’s remarks were an “insult to all of the people who suffered and died under the Nazi regime in the concentration camps.”
Fauci responds on @CNNSotu to Ron Johnson saying he’s overhyping covid and “did the exact same thing” with AIDS. “How do you respond to something as preposterous as that? Overhyping AIDS?” he says and lists the number of deaths. “I don’t have any clue what he’s talking about.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 5, 2021
