Dr. Fauci Says Recent Attacks on Public Health Officials Reflect a ‘Distortion of Reality’ (Video)

As Dr. Anthony Fauci prepares to exit his role as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as as the chief medical advisor to President Biden this year, he’s not feeling great about the general situation for health professionals at the moment. According to the doctor, threats are constantly pouring in as a result of an outright “distortion of reality.”

Fauci appeared on MSNBC to speak with Rachel Maddow on Monday night, revealing a bit more about why he decided this year was the right time for him to retire. In discussing the matter, Maddow pointed out that “there is a weird, obsessive, violent, ongoing demonization of you by the right,” and asked Fauci if it has felt “qualitatively different” from past criticisms in his career.

Fauci admitted that it indeed has been “phenomenally, 100% different,” particularly compared to the backlash he and his team faced during the AIDS/HIV crisis. Fauci went so far as referring to the two situations as “apples and elephants different.” But, Fauci has a clear understanding of exactly why that is.

“What we’re dealing with now is just a distortion of reality,” Fauci said. “I mean, conspiracy theories which don’t make any sense at all, pushing back on sound public health measures, you know, making it look like trying to save lives is encroaching on peoples’ freedom. That’s a big difference from the AIDS activists, who really had a good foundation for their objections.

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At that, Maddow asked whether Fauci had any ideas on what could be done to protect health officials like himself, to which he admitted he didn’t have any “constructive” ideas. The doctor argued that it’s a bit hard to offer a solution when there’s no reasoning with certain people.

“It’s a complete distortion of reality, I mean, a world where untruths have almost become normalized, how we can see something in front of our very eyes and deny it’s happening,” he said. “I mean that’s the environment we’re living in. You can look at January 6 on TV and you have some people who actually don’t believe it happened. How could that possibly be? And it’s now spilling over in denial about public health principles.”

You can watch Maddow’s full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci in the video above.