Slavitt: GOP ‘Ought to Be Careful About Trying to Take Down’ Fauci — ‘Stop Playing Politics with People of Science’

Former White House senior adviser on the COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt said Monday on ABC’s “The View” that Republicans “ought to be careful about trying to take down” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Co-host Joy Behar said, “Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn, Marco Rubio, and Tom Cotton are calling on Dr. Fauci to resign after his emails released showed he had doubts that covid was leaked from a lab. The man doesn’t have a crystal ball. He works with what he can. What do you think this is really about? Why are they attacking Fauci continuously?”

Slavitt said, “You know what Anthony Fauci has been doing for the last two decades? Inventing the mRNA platform, which created the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in rapid time. You know what he was doing on January 11th when the Chinese posted the genome sequence for the virus. He was downloading it, and within two days, they began working on the vaccine. Record time.”

He added, “So I don’t know what Marsha Blackburn was doing on January 11. I don’t know what Marsha Blackburn was doing for the last two decades, but they ought to be careful about trying to take down the scientist responsible for us having vaccines in the first place. Stop playing politics with people of science. Just let experts be experts. Experts can explain themselves. They aren’t always going to be right, but Tony Fauci is a very humble person, and he’ll tell you what he knows, and he tells you and his level of confidence.”

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