Fauci mocks accusations The response to the COVID pandemic was political

On Sunday, Dr Anthony Fauci scoffed at criticism that he ‘aligned’ with Democratic leaders at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak – and said he would ‘absolutely’ cooperate with an investigation House Republicans on the pandemic.

“I don’t align myself with anybody, Chuck,” the outgoing White House chief medical adviser told NBC’s “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd as he toured the shows- Sunday morning debates.

“I’m a doctor, I’m a scientist, I’m a public health specialist,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, I respect public health principles.”

Fauci, the 81-year-old outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the comments after being asked about former Vice President Mike Pence’s statements about the program last week.

“I believe Dr. Fauci has ultimately aligned himself with many Democratic governors who have taken temporary policies and made them long-term policies in their state,” Pence, 63, said at the time.

Fauci retorted: “I respect the former vice president, we got along very well in the White House, but I don’t agree with him.”

Fauci also appeared on CBS’s ‘Face The Nation’, where he said he would ‘absolutely’ cooperate with a potential investigation into his handling of the pandemic – and be prepared to testify before Congress if called upon by law enforcement officials. Republicans who accused him of lying and abusing his power.

“Oh sure. I mean, I’m all for — legit oversight. Absolutely. I mean, I’ve testified before Congress, considering the 38 years I’ve been a director, literally hundreds of times, in many oversight hearings,” Fauci said.

“I am not political at all, period. I’ve never been there and anyone who knows anything about me knows that’s the case,” he continued.

“Before, I didn’t get involved in politics. And I’m not going to get involved in politics now. I would be more than happy to explain publicly or otherwise, everything we did, and I could defend and explain everything we did from a public health perspective.

Asked why the issue was politicized, Fauci, who had admitted that parts of the pandemic response had been “botched”, blamed “an amplification” of anti-science rhetoric and vaccination.

“There is something that I have never seen in my 54 years of medicine at the NIH, it is that the acceptance or not of a life-saving intervention is very strongly influenced by your political ideology”, a- he declared.

“I mean, why would you ever want to see…more deaths among red state Republicans than there are among blue state Democrats? Quite simply because there is less vaccination. You don’t want anyone to get sick.

Fauci, who himself had COVID-19 earlier in the year, urged Americans to get rapid tests for COVID-19 before any holiday party or gathering and to “continue the booster shots,” warning of increased transmission of BQ. 1 and BQ 1.1 variants.

“We have a long way to go to optimize our protection against COVID, which is really a pity, somewhat paradoxical, that a rich country with all the vaccines that we need, and we use them at a level much lower than what we should be,” Fauci told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan.

More than 2,600 Americans died from the virus last week compared to nearly 13,000 people during Thanksgiving week last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.