During a Sunday interview on CNN, Fauci was asked about a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll that found 55% of Republicans partially blame the spread of Covid-19 on immigrants and tourism.
The survey follows scrutiny of the Biden administration over tactics at the US-Mexico border, where White House officials have admitted many migrants are not required to be tested for coronavirus and are subsequently released into the US with a notice to attend court at a later date.
Fauci said he did not see any connection between the spread of the virus and immigration. “This is not driven by immigrants. This is a problem within our country, the same way it’s a problem within other countries throughout the world,” the infectious-diseases expert said.
“They are not the driving force of this,” he added. “Let’s face reality here.”
Fauci was also asked about Title 42 – a Trump-era policy that permits the expulsion of migrants caught illegally crossing the border during the coronavirus pandemic. In response, the doctor said that “expelling” immigrants was “not the solution to an outbreak.”
Fauci’s comments were met with plenty of criticism on social media, though many others agreed and echoed his view that there was scant connection between untested migrants and Covid-19 cases.
“I’ll put it more bluntly: those who blame immigrants for COVID are the problem,” one Twitter user wrote in reaction.
Fauci earned backlash for insisting Covid-19 remained such a problem that a traditional Christmas with family and friends might need to be canceled again this year. “It’s too soon to tell. We’ve just got to concentrate on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months,” he said.
“I guess I’ll just have to put off deciding whether to celebrate the birth of Christ with people I love until Anthony Fauci tells me it’s okay,” author Andrew Klavan tweeted in reaction to Fauci’s Christmas comment.
Others blasted the health official for being a “Grinch” and waved away his advice.
The controversial adviser has consistently stated that the uptick in Covid cases in a number of states is due to the portion of the population that remains unvaccinated.
“When you have 70 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated, but who are not yet vaccinated, that’s the danger zone right there,” Fauci told ABC on Sunday.
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