Fauci, who has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and served seven presidents, has been regularly criticized by Republicans and conservative media for his cautious approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, GOP lawmakers greeted the news of Fauci’s departure by vowing to drag him before Congress for additional investigations. Fox News star Tucker Carlson, who spent more than two years demonizing Fauci as a “buffoon” and Mussolini-like “dictator,” welcomed the scientist’s pending retirement by accusing Fauci of “very serious crimes” while oddly envisioning the “pandemonium at SoulCycle studios.” for the loss of “an even smaller version of the Dalai Lama”. Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the amount of hate speech being lobbed at Fauci by the network’s hosts and commentators—especially after former President Donald Trump began trashing Fauci during his days in office. . In one infamous example, then-Fox Nation host Lara Logan directly compared Fauci to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, prompting widespread condemnation and her disappearance from the Fox airwaves. However, Fox News host Neil Cavuto has largely rattled the longtime public servant, lamenting the attacks leveled against Fauci by his own colleagues. During his Fox News interview with the outgoing NIAID chief on Tuesday, the veteran journalist — who has touted COVID-19 vaccines as a lifesaver after his own bouts with the disease — gave Fauci ample opportunity to answer his critics. Asked if his retirement “wasn’t a way to avoid Republican investigations if they take over the House and/or the Senate,” Fauci said “not at all” and that he has “nothing to hide.” Pressed if he had reservations about testifying as a private individual, the public health expert said he would be open to doing so, but noted that previous hearings had turned into partisan bickering. “I believe that oversight is an important part of the government process. Some of the things that happened were outright character assassination. This is not an oversight,” he said. “So if they want to go into legal dignified supervision, I’d be more than happy to do that.” Fauci also took issue with a conservative columnist who teased that his “colossal” $400,000+ annual pension “should also offend the sensibilities of Americans,” questioning where the writer got that figure. “So, would you like her to call me and tell me where they got that number?” Fauci asked Cavuto, adding that he would be “very, very surprised” if his annual pension was that high. “So to be honest with you, I don’t even know what it is,” Fauci insisted. “Some newspaper gets it out of their ear and starts talking about it. I don’t know what they’re talking about.” The president’s chief medical adviser went on to refute the idea that he “shut down” the nation during the early days of the pandemic, noting that he was “not recommending that everything be shut down.” Asked if he regretted whether the lockdowns went too far, especially with schools, Fauci claimed he was “one of the people who said we have to do everything we can to get kids back to school.” Fauci, however, really pushed back when Cavuto brought up the origins of COVID-19 and whether the doctor was too dismissive of the theory that the virus was developed through research grants from the National Institutes of Health and eventually leaked from a lab in Wuhan. “This is revisionist history,” Fauci replied. “I’ve always been open-minded and I’ve said from the beginning, we have to be open-minded about the origin. As more and more data came in, including recent work by highly trained virologists from many different countries, it showed that it is much more likely to be a natural phenomenon.” He continued: “The viruses that they were dealing with, anyone who knows even a little about virology will tell you that it would be molecularly impossible for these viruses to mutate, either by accident or on purpose, into SARS-COVID-2. People seem to ignore this and continue with a wide variety of conspiracy theories.” Cavuto concluded the interview by noting that critics believe Fauci has been “too dismissive” of their criticisms and “didn’t entertain their concerns about their fears,” wondering if the Presidential Medal of Freedom winner would want to respond. “Neil, thank you for giving me the opportunity. You’re a fair guy. If somebody says something that’s scientifically wrong and I disagree with them, I’ve become the adversary,” Fauci shot back. “If someone says hydroxychloroquine works and it’s the miracle cure and I say it doesn’t, then I’m the bad guy for some people. When in fact it never worked, and it’s not working now,” he concluded. Of course, this was a subtle shot at Trump and his allies, who in the early months of the pandemic obsessively pushed the malaria drug as a cure-all, even though it was repeatedly found to be ineffective against COVID-19.
