Elon Musk violently attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outgoing White House adviser on the Covid-19 pandemic, on Sunday in a tweet that immediately caused controversy. “My name is Judge/Fauci,” the wealthy Twitter boss wrote, in an allusion to the right-wing campaign to sue Dr. Fauci for alleged crimes related to his involvement in the pandemic response.
He also posted a meme showing Dr Fauci saying to US President Joe Biden: “Just another lockdown, my king (…)”, in an apparent criticism of this measure adopted in the past to fight Covid-19. This tweet quickly went viral, receiving more than 800,000 likes in about eleven hours, but also sparking criticism.
In the sights of the Republicans
Vaccine specialist and author Peter Hotez called on Elon Musk to delete the tweet. “200,000 Americans have needlessly lost their lives to Covid-19, because of this type of anti-science rhetoric and misinformation,” he said. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar praised the way Dr. Fauci “calmly guided our country through the crisis” and pinned Elon Musk: “Could you just leave this man alone, in your seemingly endless quest for attention? »
Republican lawmakers have threatened to go after Anthony Fauci when they take control of the House of Representatives in January, after several rows with him over Covid vaccines, mandatory mask-wearing and other related measures to the pandemic. First adviser to Republican President Donald Trump before Democrat Joe Biden, Dr. Fauci found himself embroiled in countless controversies, he who had always been careful to stay away from politics. In 2020, during press conferences at the White House, he politely corrected President Trump several times.
The 81-year-old immunologist is due to step down as presidential adviser on the pandemic this month. He will also leave before the end of the year his post as director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which he had held for thirty-eight years. In November, he said the biggest difficulty he had faced in the fight against Covid-19 was the country’s political polarization.