The White House is leading a smear campaign against the world-renowned immunologist and the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Even though the personal attacks are sad, they are not surprising.
This was in the works for months and it is a pattern we have seen this White House use against any official who dares to contradict Donald Trump’s chosen narrative. Asked about Fauci’s recent comments about the surging coronavirus cases in Florida and Texas by Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this month, Trump said: “Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes. A lot of them said don’t wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. Now they are saying wear a mask. A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of mistakes.”
Trump also tweeted his displeasure with Dr. Fauci over Fauci’s wary assessment of the NFL season and he has retweeted an attack on Dr. Fauci with the hashtag ‘fireFauci.’
But, the seeming inevitability of Donald Trump and by extension, the White House’s decision to try and discredit Dr. Fauci does not make it any less brazen or witless. The number of coronavirus cases are surging. On Sunday, Florida broke the national record for new coronavirus infections in a single day–15,999. If there was ever a time to listen to experts, it’s now. An attack on Dr. Fauci is an attack on science and an attack on everything that we need to do to effectively fight this pandemic.
Donald Trump would love nothing more than to ignore the virus and go about business as usual but that is a luxury the American people cannot afford because unlike Trump we aren’t living in a biological bunker. Fauci is who the American people trust to provide them with factual, unbiased information about the virus, now is not the time to try and discredit him because he did not agree with Donald Trump when he told us to inject ourselves with disinfectant to cure coronavirus.
Novel virus
The White House is also reportedly circulating a memo about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been “wrong on things.” Apparently, “several White House officials are concerned” about the number of times he’s been wrong. Nevermind that these were the same individuals who are unbothered by their boss lying over 18,000 times since he was sworn into office, but I digress. Not much is known about the coronavirus on account of it being a novel virus. Nobody, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, knew much about this virus. Scientists are still researching and learning new things daily. So, for the White House to suggest that Dr. Fauci was somehow intentionally misleading Americans in an effort to undermine Donald Trump’s re-election efforts, is downright ludicrous.
This newest smear campaign should also call into question the role of mainstream media. The White House is trying to discredit a world-renowned expert, they are using way lesser qualified people to do it, and the media is helping them. My suggestion when publishing stories smearing someone like Dr. Fauci if the source isn’t willing to put their name on it so the public can compare their credentials to Fauci’s to see who is more deserving of their trust then, don’t run the story at all. Just a suggestion.
Donald Trump smearing Fauci will play well with his base. But outside of that, it’ll fall flat. Americans are still dying and getting severely ill from the coronavirus. Millions are still out of a job. Smearing Fauci will not fix any of those issues neither will it save a single American life.
