Senator Marco Rubio aired his grievances on Sunday with the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The Florida Republican blasted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) official, claiming in a tweet that he “lied” about mask usage, has been “distorting” the need for getting vaccinated and is part of a larger conspiracy of elites trying to deceive Americans.
“Dr. Fauci lied about masks in March. Dr. Fauci has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity,” Rubio wrote. “It isn’t just him. Many in elite bubbles believe the American public doesn’t know ‘what’s good for them’ so they need to be tricked into ‘doing the right thing.’”
Some of what Rubio claimed was either inaccurate or misleading. His post led to swift backlash from Twitter users, similar to the kind generated when Rubio and some GOP colleagues received criticism for getting COVID vaccines before first responders, health care workers and others who are more susceptible to the virus, despite downplaying the pandemic earlier in the year.
The Congress member’s public doubts about the need to receive the vaccine and his critique of Fauci came just eight days after Rubio himself touted the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness when he was inoculated at the U.S. Capitol.
“I am so confident that the #Covid19 vaccine is safe & effective that I decided to take it myself,” the Sunshine State lawmaker tweeted at the time.
Fauci, along with other public health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), did urge Americans against mask-wearing at the onset of the pandemic in March. However, CDC guidance was changed in April to recommend the wearing of face coverings as more was learned about the highly contagious disease.
This is an excerpt from Newsweek
