White House condemns Musk’s remark on Fauci, calls it ‘disgusting’

“These personal attacks that we’ve been seeing are dangerous, on Dr. Fauci and other public health professionals as well. They are disgusting and they are divorced from reality,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday when asked about Musk’s tweets.

He also added that the US government will continue to call out such remarks and it has a very clear stance about that.

It is worth noting that Anthony Fauci, the US infectious disease expert, faced a lot of flak due to his strict COVID measures policies, including mandatory masks, social distancing, isolation, etc.

Senior immunologist has served a 5-decade-long tenure in which he was an adviser to seven US presidents. He came into the limelight after he took the front seat in COVID management in the USA. However, he faced even death threats for doing his job during the pandemic, reported Reuters.

Sharp condemnation from the White House came after Elon Musk took a jibe at using gender pronouns and used it as a way to criticise Anthony Fauci calling for his prosecution.

“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” tweeted Musk. In another tweet, Elon Musk shared a meme targeting Fauci for strict implementation of lockdown in the USA. After receiving a lot of responses, he further tweeted, “Truth resonates’.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, is up for retirement this month. He became the US’s face of handling the COVID-19 pandemic with strict guidelines. From appearing on Television to convey government’s message to the implementation of strict COVID measures like social distancing, mandatory masks, etc, Fauci played an important role in the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

His support of vaccines and lockdowns took him on conservatives’ most hated persons’ list. He was also criticised by Donald Trump. The Republicans, who will control the house from January, have hinted at the possible inquiry on Anthony Fauci on the US administration’s COVID response.

“If there are oversight hearings, I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify,” said Fauci in response. He also assured of cooperating with the government in any such inquiry in the future. “We can defend and explain and stand by everything that we’ve said, so I have nothing to hide,” he added.

(With agency inputs)