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Fauci Faces Death Threats for Protecting Us with Science

For his scientific diligence in trying to save America from deadly diseases, Dr. Anhony Fauci gets death threats and harassment:

Once an avid runner, at 79, Dr. Fauci now power walks, flanked by federal agents.

Dr. Jon LaPook: What’s that all about?

Dr. Anthony Fauci: That’s sad. The very fact that a public health message to save lives triggers such venom and animosity to me that it results in real and credible threats to my life and my safety. But it bothers me less than the hassling of my wife and my children.

Dr. Jon LaPook: They’ve been threatened?

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Yes. I mean, like, give me a break.

Dr. Jon LaPook: Have there been death threats against…

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Yes.

Dr. Jon LaPook: …you and your family?

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Yes.

Dr. Jon LaPook: All of you?

Dr. Anthony Fauci: No, just me.

Dr. Christine Grady: Mostly him.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Mostly me. But hassling.

Dr. Christine Grady: Harassment against all of us.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Against the rest of the family [Jonathan LaPook, “Fauci Admits Administration Has Restricted His Media Appearances, Says He’s Not Surprised Trump Got Covid,” CBS: 60 Minutes, 2020.10.18].

It’s not the imaginary “antifa” about whom Donald Trump keeps wheezing who are threatening Dr. Fauci and his family. It’s not the “leftists” whom Donald Trump demonizes who were plotting to kidnap and kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to punish her for fighting coronavirus and to spark nationwide violence. It’s not Black Lives Matter or immigrants or anyone else bloody-shirted by Donald Trump who are threatening to violently remove the governor of Maryland or the mayor of Wichita for using science to protect public health. It’s people Donald Trump does not complain about, does not condemn, does not call out of call off who are putting honest, science-minded public servants at risk. Quite the contrary: Donald Trump is using his bully pulpit to incite these bullies and make all Americans less safe.

Protect Dr. Fauci. Protect our governors and mayors. Make scientists and science safe again: remove Donald Trump from office—peacefully, Constitutionally, democratically—and vote for Joe Biden.

25 Comments

  1. when the man tells the truth ,would then have to worry abut his life being threatened.Never thought this would happen to him.By the way I believe in Science.

  2. sx123

    The country needs to start electing leaders that bring people together and help make everyone prosperous or this country is toast.

    People, both sides, need to stop picking the science they want to be true instead of what is true, to the best of our knowledge.

    Demonization of experts must stop.

    I’m not going to ask Fauci for farming advice, and I’m not going to ask farmers for virus mitigation plans.

  3. o

    sx123, I could not agree more. The demonizing of “government” by Conservatives/GOP/Trumpists is nothing more than taking corporations and greed off the leash. “Great men” (as defined by great fortune) want to be left unfettered from the considerations – much less obligations – of society.

    The nation needs to begin voting in the nation’s interests.

  4. Dicta

    What is bizarre to me is the fact that the when CDC adjusts its recommendations on the basis of incoming evidence, it is used against them by Trump supporters as proof they can’t be trusted. That’s how science works. You develop a hypothesis and then test it. When contrary evidence comes in, you adjust. Plasticity is a GOOD thing in science. A skeptic doesn’t ignore all proof, they demand it. But this is the opposite of what Trump does. He ignores every piece of evidence that says he is wrong and then uses his stubborn refusal to admit his mistake as evidence he never made one. It’s absolutely insane and, I swear, this country is celebrating being stupid.

  5. Donald Pay

    “Merchants of Doubt” and “Doubt Is Their Product” are two books that look at the abuse of science by the corporate/conservative think tanks. The kooky right tends to gravitate to wacky conspiracy theories, but the more sophisticated right wraps their p.r. campaigns in fake science. I’ve seen conservative think tanks pump out scientific sounding b.s. on issues stretching back to stardards on radioactivity through DDT and Agent Orange to PCBs to chlorofluorocarbons to acid rain to climate change. Funded by corporate entities like the Koch’s fund these efforts to provide a very thin patina of fake science for the scientifically challenged conservative politicians.

  6. Dicta

    My larger point is about falsifiability: it is kinda the entire point. If your claims cannot be proven false NO MATTER WHAT, then you are dealing in religion, not science. The fact that science continuously pushes on theory and established thought is what makes it science. That lends it credibility rather than detracts from it. I can’t fathom why this destroys people’s confidence in it. FFS, we want a system that lends itself to scrutiny. I thought that was kinda the entire point of this dumb “drain the swamp” cries.

  7. Mike Livingston

    Benito Trumpolini is the death knell for democracy and American exceptionalism, makes me wonder how many of his blind followers even know the definition of fascism.

    Dr. Fauci is a national treasure in my opinion, he exhibits the courage of his convictions daily. I am so glad that he has freed himself from what he considered was his duty, to stay out of the fray and remain silent when being under assault from the idiot in the oval office.

  8. leslie

    Pls dump the “both sides” cop out.

  9. Chuck-Z

    Inching closer to reviving Khmer Rouge ideals right here in the US. I bet Trump would be exchanging letters with Pol Pot right now, were it an option.

  10. mike from iowa

    2 moar milestones reached in drumpf body count…

    United States
    Coronavirus Cases:
    8,437,569
    Deaths:
    225,097

    Up, up and away.The sky’s the limit.

  11. mike from iowa

    Three iowa towns in NW iowa are designated as red, major covid cases. They are Spirit Lake, Spencer and Storm Lake. I believe Soo City might be listed as well.Too many large gatherings of people listed as the cause.

  12. @Sam 2

    Fauci has been wrong on everything:

    To name a few items

    OkTo tank at cruise
    Not a threat to America
    Ok to have sex with smoke you meet on tinder

    Super Bowel Ok

    May 28, 2020 called mask symbolic.

    What happened on all these statements?

    Still no reason for death threats

    This guy needs to be fired!

  13. Loren

    MFI, you have to stop testing so much. Testing causes an increase in COVID. Very dangerous! ;-) (At least, that is what our governor tells us here in SD.)

  14. jerry

    Geez Sam2, lay off the crack pipe man, you sound high.

  15. Mike Livingston

    Jerry, Sam is not smoking crack, he is methed up. It is all good, Kristy’s on it.

  16. leslie

    “I thought that was kinda the entire point of this dumb “drain the swamp” cries.”

    “Both sides” cop-out applies.

    Re: Trump/GOP; a U of Tx professor hopes that history NEEDED the abolitionist radicalism (which regrettably resulted in violence and murder at Harpers Ferry) of John Brown, TEMPERED by the political pragmatism of President Lincoln to know it would take a 13th amendment of the constitution starting the elimination of discrimination and slavery nationally; and that if those events do not teach us that, then we are closer to another civil war than he hopes.

    So i get lost in the radicalizing part and forget the more pragmatic—like perhaps Joe and Jill Biden can lead us out of this Trumpian mess which is really the “lost cause” of the south, the corporate capitalists, the Kochs, McConnell eTc and the crazy little Hitler Trump that they AND Putin, Kim, Netanyahu, and the Saudis, and perhaps the Chinese have taken advantage of; because they are still embittered from their own lost cause politics of their conservative parents and grandparents!

  17. leslie

    NPR Teri Gross program (above).

    ***

    Wow. By a pair of 4-4 votes, #SCOTUS rejects two Republican requests to stay Pennsylvania state court rulings that allow counting of absentee ballots arriving shortly after Election Day with no (or illegible) postmark.

    Chief Justice Roberts joins the progressives to deny relief.

    Because an application for a stay requires five votes, a 4-4 tie is a denial of relief. And we know how everyone voted here because four Justices publicly noted their disagreements.

    @steve_vladeck
    ·
    3h
    It’s possible that Republicans can renew their application if and when Judge Barrett is confirmed, in the hopes that she’d side with them.

    ***

    Roberts is a master of obfuscation, Imo. Remember his role in Bush v Gore debacle.

  18. Debbo

    States that listen to science and Fauci fare so much better. Axios has published the latest hospitalization rates by state.

    Share of hospital beds occupied by Covid-19 patients:
    is.gd/iNudQw

    MN 3.6%
    SD 6.9%
    ND 6.4%
    WI 9.4%
    IA 5.0%
    TX 7.7%
    MO 8.4%
    NV 9.0%
    Only Hawaii is decreasing.

  19. leslie

    Sen. Tammy Baldwin
    @SenatorBaldwin
    ·
    Oct 15
    I am calling for a new HELP Committee hearing to get to the bottom of political interference from
    @VP
    Pence with the CDC on worker safety at meatpacking plants. CDC Director Redfield gave testimony that he had no conversations with the White House. It has been revealed he did.

  20. Dicta

    If what you got from my post is that Trump and his supporters not understanding how science works is a “both sides” cop out, you have absolutely atrocious reading comprehension.

  21. mike from iowa

    What Fauci actually said about going cruising…

    Total2.8K2.7K40027
    Both Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, gave wanna-be cruisers the okay to set sail.

    Although a few days earlier Dr. Fauci had advised people against cruising, he modified that statement to echo what others had said earlier: If a person is elderly and/or suffering from underlying health issues, it would be wise for them to postpone their cruise.

    “If You Want To Go On A Cruise Ship, Go On A Cruise Ship”
    Nassau Bahamas lighthouse
    During one of several press conferences at which the topic of cruising came up, Dr. Fauci said, “If you are a healthy young person, there is no reason if you want to go on a cruise ship, go on a cruise ship.”

    What Fauci said about dating app….

    If you’re looking for friends, sit in a room and put a mask on and, you know, chat a bit. If you want to go a bit more intimate, then that’s your choice regarding a risk.”

    According to Dr Fauci, the decision whether or not to meet up with someone from a dating app becomes even trickier when considering that people who are asymptomatic are also spreading the virus.

    Explaining that it would be “much easier” if only people who were sick were contagious, Dr Fauci said: “But what we’re seeing, which becomes really problematic, is that there’s a considerable amount of transmission from an asymptomatic person.”

  22. Dicta

    Wait, wait. So, Fauci adjusted recommendations on the basis of incoming evidence in order to best represent the body of knowledge available at the time? BURN HIM. BURN THE WITCH. This Sam2 is the embodiment of the sort of idiocy that permeates Trump’s hot takes on the topic.

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