Anthony Fauci, MD, offered a brief and straightforward response to Twitter owner Elon Musk's recent post calling for the prosecution of the outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In a Dec. 11 tweet, Mr. Musk wrote, "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci." The post drew swift backlash from members of the medical community, who asked the tweet be taken down and defended Dr. Fauci's work as leader of the nation's COVID-19 response.
When asked about the matter in a Dec. 13 interview with Nature's Max Kozlov, Dr. Fauci offered the following response: "I don't pay attention to that, Max, and I don't feel I need to respond. I don't tweet. I don't have a Twitter account. A lot of that stuff is just a cesspool of misinformation, and I don't waste a minute about it."
Dr. Fauci also said such comments from public figures with large reach add to safety risks for him and his family.
"That's why I have armed federal agents with me all the time. That stirs up a lot of hate in people who have no idea why they're hating — they're hating because somebody like that is tweeting about it," he told Nature.
Read the full interview here.