President Biden's chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci responded to recent criticism from new Twitter owner Elon Musk by suggesting it was a "distraction."
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director was interviewed for an upcoming Thursday episode of The Axe Files hosted by David Axelrod. The podcast host asked Fauci to respond to Musk's criticism, the audio of which was featured in a post from Axelrod.
"I don't respond to him," said Fauci. "I don't pay any attention to him because that's merely a distraction."
"And if you get drawn into that and I have to be honest, that cesspool of interaction, it's ... there's no value added to that. It doesn't help anything."
Following his release of the Twitter Files via journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Schellenberger, and former New York Times editor Bari Weiss, Musk teased the release of Twitter Files on COVID-19 censorship and other medical misinformation.
"My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci," Musk tweeted Sunday morning.
Georgia House representative Marjorie Taylor Greene responded, “I affirm your pronouns Elon.”
"When will we get the Twitter Files on Covid?" asked one user. "The info on the suspension of the many doctors and scientists? Who was involved? Suppression of what has turned out to be factual information."
Musk confirmed the report was "coming bigtime."
On Sunday, Musk shared a doctored meme featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Biden as Lord of the Rings characters Gríma Wormtongue and King Théoden of Rohan, respectively. Wormtongue, who served as the chief counsellor at the court of Théoden, is exposed as an agent and mole secretly serving a corrupt wizard.
The meme features Fauci whispering “just one more lockdown my king” to President Joe Biden, appearing to criticize Fauci for playing a larger role in COVID-19 lockdown measures — a claim which Biden’s chief medical advisor has denied.
Musk previously referred to the Lord of the Rings character, suggesting "Twitter was Wormtongue to the world."
"Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community," said Former Nasa Astronoaut Scott Kelly. "They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives."
"I strongly disagree. Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone," Musk replied. "As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo."
"Elon Musk wants to criminalize Anthony Fauci because he disagrees with him," said New York Congressman Ritchie Torres.
"The Branch Covidians are upset lol," said Musk following push back from supporters of the NIAID Director.
Cardiologist Dr. Peter A. McCullough and collaborator on the creation of mRNA vaccines Dr. Robert W Malone were reinstated to Twitter on Monday night. Both doctors were permanently banned under Twitter's medical misinformation policies regarding COVID-19.
Musk has not provided a timeline for the release of Twitter Files on COVID-19 at this time.
