Fauci plea to ‘wear a mask’ tops list of most notable 2020 quotes

Anthony Fauci’s appeal for Americans to “wear a mask” led a list of the year’s most notable quotes compiled by Yale Law School librarian Fred Shapiro, The Associated Press reported.

Shapiro’s year-end update to “The Yale Book of Quotations” includes 10 quotes from throughout the year, including the plea from the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, made in a May 21 CNN interview regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

No. 2 on the list was “I can’t breathe,” which George Floyd said as then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck during a May 25 arrest. The plea had already been a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement for years after Eric Garner also said it before his 2014 death in New York.

Quotes from President Trump about the coronavirus pandemic were in both the third and fourth slots on the list. No. 3 was his Feb. 27 claim, “One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” No. 4 was his widely ridiculed April 23 remark, “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?”

In fifth place was White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s pledge at her first briefing May 1, “I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.” The sixth was a statement dictated by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to her granddaughter Clara Spera before her death in September, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

No. 7 was then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s widely condemned remark to radio host Charlamagne tha God in May, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black,” followed by McEnany’s July 16 remark on reopening schools in the fall, “The science should not stand in the way of this.”

At No. 9 was the comment, “You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier,” made by Biden during a February campaign event to an attendee. A campaign aide later said Biden was making a movie reference. Coming in at No. 10 was “We are all Lakers today,” which Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said on Jan. 26 after the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter accident.