Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and a member of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, has recently found himself on the receiving end of threats against him and his family that are so severe they had to be assigned personal security.
Back when this global pandemic first began, Fauci served as a cornerstone during the White House press briefings, earning himself the title of the most trusted public-health officials in the United States, with some even hailing him as a hero, as he clearly refused to peddle the dangerous Trump narratives on the virus and ensured that the American public was getting true and accurate information.
However, over the past several weeks, Fauci has become a target for the Trump White House as the president pushes with both hands for premature reopenings and turns safety measures into partisan points of argument, with the administration going so far as to desperately attempt to discredit the doctor.
And now it seems that the Trump White House isn’t the only thing coming after Dr. Fauci.
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During an appearance on CNN’s podcast, The Axe Files, Fauci revealed that he and his family have been receiving so many “serious threats” that they had to be assigned personal security detail — stating that these threats were on a different level than those he received when working on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s and 1990s.
“I’ve seen a side of society that I guess is understandable, but it’s a little bit disturbing,” Fauci stated. “Back in the days of HIV when I was being criticized with some hate mail, it was, you know, people calling me a gay-lover and ‘What the hell are you wasting a lot of time on that?'”
“I mean, things that you would just push aside as stupid people saying stupid things,” he stated.
But the threats he’s getting this time around are “really a magnitude different now, because of the anger,” he explained.
“As much as people inappropriately, I think, make me somewhat of a hero — and I’m not a hero, I’m just doing my job — there are people who get really angry at thinking I’m interfering with their life because I’m pushing a public-health agenda,” he went on.
Fauci revealed that he’s received “not only hate mail but also serious threats.”
“It’s not good,” he said. “I don’t see how society does that. It’s tough. Serious threats against me, against my family … my daughters, my wife — I mean, really? Is this the United States of America?”
Responding to the attacks and rumors against him, Fauci said, “I suppose what this reflects is the divisiveness of our society at a political level. I mean, this is a public-health issue, the fundamental principles of public health, and I don’t see how people can have animosity to that.”
Frankly, it seems the Trump crowd is literally trying to destroy the only hope we have left. And I’m not even surprised.
Featured image via Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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