Fauci infuriated by threats to family

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci will be on CBS Sunday Morning to talk about working with President Biden and the threats his family has received due to his work. 

Fauci said the threats his family has received due to his work on the pandemic under former President Trump’s administration “infuriates” him.

“I mean, I have to tell you, I’m not afraid – of myself, for myself. But the thing that really is disturbing to me is the harassment … continual harassment, you know, of my three daughters … The crazies, you know, know who they are, know where they live, know what their telephone number is, know where they work,”  Fauci told CBS reporter Ted Koppel.

Fauci opened up about other struggles he felt he had when under Trump’s leadership and how he sees the future with Biden in charge. 

“I think if we had the public health messages from the top, right down through the people in the trenches be consistent, that things might have been different,” Fauci said. 

The different signals Americans were getting from leadership made the fight against the pandemic harder, he said in the interview. Fauci and Trump were often in disagreement, with Trump not fully supporting the mask measures Fauci believed were necessary. 

“You cannot have the politicization of public health messages. I mean, the idea that wearing a mask or not became a political statement … that makes it beyond difficult to implement a good public health measure,” Fauci said. 

Fauci seemed hopeful for the future of fighting the pandemic, and believes Biden’s goal of 100 million people vaccinated in his first 100 days in office is possible. Millions of people have already been vaccinated, but strict guidelines for vaccinations have slowed the rollout. 

“And that was one of the things that was kind of refreshing, in one of the first briefings that we had with President Biden and Vice President Harris is that he said, ‘We might have setbacks. But you know when that happens what we’re going to do? We’re not going to point fingers. We’re not going to blame people. We’re not going to hide anything. We’re going to be totally transparent and honest and we’re going to try and fix it,” Fauci said.