Scientists heaped scorn on Twitter owner Elon Musk after he suggested Sunday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, deserved to be prosecuted — while belittling the inclusive use of pronouns, to boot.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk blurted to his 21 million Twitter followers.
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The broadside came without context, but appeared to be aimed at fueling right-wing conspiracies about Fauci’s role in handling the COVID pandemic. Fauci, the chief White House medical adviser, has been vilified by the likes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and many others on the right.
Epidemiologists and many others immediately leaped to Fauci’s defense.
“For the record: Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong, except serve our nation,” tweeted vaccine scientist and professor of virology Dr. Peter Hotez.
“In the meantime, Mr. Musk should know that 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from COVID due to this kind of anti-science rhetoric and disinformation,” he added. “Elon, I’m asking you to take down this Tweet.”
“Agree 100%” replied Dr. Paul Sax, director of Harvard University’s Infectious Disease Clinic.
The tweet “puts healthcare workers in danger,” said Dr. Joy Henningsen.
“This is targeted harrassment & a dog-whistle to those who have attacked physicians & other healthcare workers since the inception of the pandemic,” she tweeted. “There’s nothing to prosecute.”
Right-wing criticism has centered around Fauci’s advocacy of vaccines, social distancing and masking, all measures that have been proven to mitigate the spread of the virus that has killed more than 1 million people in the U.S. since taking hold in early 2020.
Fauci is preparing to step down from his long-held roles including director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of the year.
