Sen. Marco Rubio harshly criticized National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying he has been lying about coronavirus.
“Dr. Fauci lied about masks in March,” Rubio wrote on Twitter. “Dr. Fauci has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity. 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.’”
Fauci explained recently to The New York Times why some of his estimates appeared to have changed during the crisis.
Fauci said it was a combination of gaining knowledge about the coronavirus as the pandemic continued, as well as because he thinks people can now better handle the fact that returning to how it was before COVID-19 struck may take longer than expected, according to The Hill.
Fauci specifically noted about herd immunity that he increased the estimates because the number of Americans wary of getting the vaccine has declined.
“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75%,” Fauci told the Times. “Then, when newer surveys said 60% or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”
He added that “We need to have some humility here. We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90%. But, I’m not going to say 90%.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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