Dr. Anthony Fauci has fired back at Elon Musk for making “absurd statements” after the Twitter boss called out the top federal health official in a series of tweets.
As Slay News reported, Musk set Twitter alight over the weekend in a post that targeted Fauci and the “woke” Left’s use of gender pronouns.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said in a Sunday tweet.
My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
Fauci is due to step down from his federal government positions this month.
However, Republicans how vowed to investigate Fauci as soon as they take control of the House in January.
Meanwhile, Musk has been publishing internal communications from his recently acquired social media company, dubbed the “Twitter Files.”
The files show how executives at the social media company orchestrated the removal of President Donald Trump from the platform.
They also reveal the efforts to silence medical experts and celebrities who spoke out against the Covid vaccines, lockdowns, and other measures that Fauci has championed.
It’s unclear if Musk’s post is referring to the GOP’s planned investigations or whether Fauci may be implicated in yet-to-be-published installments of the Twitter Files.
However, Musk did tweet a meme shortly before that includes Fauci and President Biden and makes reference to lockdowns.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
Musk later added that he plans to release “Twitter files on Covid.”
The comments from Musk even provoked public condemnation from the White House.
“They are disgusting, and they are divorced from reality, and we will continue to call that out and be very clear about that,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
“These [remarks] are incredibly dangerous and should be called out.”
Speaking during a new interview with David Axelrod on his podcast, Fauci blasted Musk for instigating a “cesspool of interaction.”
“I don’t respond to him,” Fauci said.
“I don’t pay any attention to him because that’s merely a distraction.
“And if you get drawn into that, and I have to be honest, that cesspool of interaction, it’s — there’s no value added to that.
“It doesn’t help anything.”
WATCH:
Fauci reiterated his sentiment during an interview with Nature.
“I don’t pay attention to that, and I don’t feel I need to respond,” Democrat President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor told the magazine.
“I don’t tweet. I don’t have a Twitter account.
“A lot of that stuff is just a cesspool of misinformation, and I don’t waste a minute worrying about it.”
Fauci then suggested that Musk’s criticisms create a safety threat against him.
“Of course it’s at risk,” he said of his safety.
“That’s why I have armed federal agents with me all the time.
“That stirs up a lot of hate in people who have no idea why they’re hating — they’re hating because somebody like that is tweeting about it.”
During a Tuesday MSNBC appearance, Fauci continued to bash Elon Musk’s “absurd statements.”
He claimed that Musk’s “strange, bizarre tweets” could turn young people away from careers in public health.
“I’ve had to deal with and even though I don’t listen to or bother with those strange, bizarre tweets,” Fauci told host Andrea Mitchell.
“Like, prosecute me for what?
“I don’t know what he’s thinking about.
“What it does is it really is – turns people away, I’m afraid, younger individuals who were interested in getting into public health might say, ‘What is all this about?’ where public health officials who are doing nothing more or less than trying to save people’s lives by promoting and public health principles get attacked for reasons that seem inexplicable,” Fauci continued.
“It really is, I believe Andrea, a manifestation of the profound divisiveness which we have in our society right now and the politicization of science which leads to absurd statements like that,” Fauci said.
WATCH:
Fauci’s tenure as NIAID director was marred with criticism over his decisions, particularly during the COVID pandemic, according to The New York Times.
Amid the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic during the Reagan administration, Fauci also reportedly pursued a vaccine instead of retroviral treatments, according to the Federalist.
Fauci, whose net worth climbed by $5 million during the pandemic, also faced questions about the funding of so-called “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.
