Dr. Anthony Fauci has a very difficult job. He has been tasked with being the government’s head infectious disease expert during a pandemic, at a time in our history when science has become acutely politicized. He also has to work against a president and administration who help to spread misinformation regarding the best public health guidance. Dr. Fauci has also had to contend with a campaign against him from right-wing media outlets and every cuckoo clock conspiracy theorist who is trying to figure a way to deal with their feelings about voting for Trump or nobody. Surely, the lack of leadership and how terrible everything is right now isn’t a direct result of buying into bogus QAnon conspiracy theories and voting for transparently corrupt and incompetent leadership?
It’s this community of people that Fox News Tucker Carlson hopes to appeal to. Unfortunately, Tucker and the rest of the right-wing death machine’s fact-free propaganda has real life effects on people. For example, Anthony Fauci and his entire family have had to get security details as death threats against Fauci pour in, in no small part due to the misinformation promoted by people like Carlson and his Fox News brethren.
Appearing on a livestream interview with The Washington Post's Geoff Edgers, Fauci was asked about Tucker Carlson’s campaign against the infectious disease expert.
“I’m not concerned about what he says. It’s a little bit—I think you could say that when he does that, it triggers some of the crazies in society to start threatening me, actually threatening, which actually happens. I mean, who would have thought, when I was in medical school, doing things to save people’s lives, I’d have to be going around with a security detail? That’s really ridiculous.”
Dr. Fauci also said that he didn’t request security; he was supplied it, as the government has been monitoring the threats against Fauci.
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The whole interview can we be watched below.
