Dr. Fauci hits back against ‘purely political’ attacks by COVID response critics

Dr. Anthony Fauci hit back at “purely political” attacks on himself and fellow public health experts for their efforts to keep a lid on COVID-19.

The nation’s top doctor on infectious diseases spoke with Dr. Marc Siegel, the host of Doctor Radio Reports on SiriusXM radio in an interview that aired on Wednesday saying that critics are using the pandemic and people’s weariness with preventative measures to make political points, even it if costs lives.

“It is very unfortunate, the distraction of those who would politicize me by saying things that just don’t make any sense,” said Fauci, who is President Biden’s top health adviser. “That does nothing, but endanger the lives of our citizens.”

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has repeatedly said Fauci lies about the pandemic and during a congressional hearing on Jan. 11, claimed that he tried to “take down” some scientists who disagreed with him.

Paul and other conservative critics have focused their ire at how the pandemic is being handled on Fauci, the National Institutes of Health infectious disease chief who also is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser.

“We should be all pulling together to end this pandemic rather than making ad hominem (attacks), which are really preposterous,” he said.

Fauci also pushed back against accusations that he and other top public health officials are somehow covering up a possible Chinese government role in the spread of the virus.

He has repeatedly blasted theories that the COVID-19 virus was created in a lab, saying that the vast majority of “card-carrying” scientists and medical experts disagree.

“The evidence and the circumstances weigh very, very strongly that this is a natural occurrence in the sense of jumping from an animal species, a bat, maybe to an intermediate host, to a human,” Fauci said.