An epidemiologist and professor at Stanford University said Dr. Anthony Fauci is not worthy of his high position of authority after his recently released emails showed him denying that masks work while publicly advocating for their use.
“I think his credibility is entirely shot,” Jay Bhattacharya, a medical expert, told Fox News.
The public will have a hard time trusting Fauci again after seeing how frequently he has flip-flopped on significant issues, including the use of face masks.
“I think he’s been all over the place on masks,” Bhattacharya said. “There are emails you can find in the treasure trove of emails that have been released where he acknowledged that the virus is aerosolized — well, the cloth masks people have been recommending, they’re not very particular[ly] effective against aerosolized viruses.”
Fauci’s emails, which were made public through the Freedom of Information Act, show Fauci privately telling someone he did not believe face masks were effective against the coronavirus.
“Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading the infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection,” he said in one of the recently released emails. “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out the virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”
Bhattacharya argued this was not just a matter of the “science” changing.
“I really don’t understand his back-and-forth, and his answer made absolutely no sense,” he explained. “Yeah, you should change your mind when the science changes. But what is that science that changed that convinced him that masks are the most effective way?”
Several Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., have called on Fauci to resign from the federal government in light of the email scandal.
“I mean, everything we’re finding there, how can the president — and I know the American people don’t have trust in Dr. Fauci,” McCarthy said. “Let’s find a person we can trust. Take politics aside. I mean we’re talking about American lives here.”
