White House backs Dr Fauci, calls Musk's attack 'incredibly dangerous'

Washington

The White House on Monday (December 12) lashed out at Elon Musk after the billionaire called Dr Anthony Fauci to be prosecuted for his handling of the pandemice. Dr Fauci is among the foremost expert on infectious diease in the US and who is a hate figure for many people on the right end of the political spectrum.

"These are incredibly dangerous, these personal attacks that we are seeing," said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, in response to the weekend tweet by Musk that subsequently went viral.

"They are disgusting and they are divorced from reality," she said.

Musk, who is now owner of social media giant Twitter, tweeted on Sunday to urge prosecution of Fauci.

"My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci," Musk said, tauntingly playing on the growing practice for people to indicate their preferred gender pronouns.

Musk also posted a meme showing Fauci telling US President Joe Biden, "Just one more lockdown, my king," in apparent criticism of the coronavirus mitigation measures initially taken in parts of the country in the first year of the pandemic.

Former US president Donald Trump and other conservatives in the country had focussed their criticism of Fauci during the height of the pandemic. Fauci even faced death threats and had a security team assigned to protect him.

"These personal attacks that we've been seeing are dangerous on Dr. Fauci and other public health professionals as well," said Jean-Pierre. 

"Dr. Fauci has served under seven Republican and Democratic presidents. We cannot forget that.... His work on infectious disease from HIV Aids to COVID has saved countless lives," she said.

"We are fortunate, I should say, that he has devoted his career and his life and his exceptional talent to America's public health."

Republican lawmakers have pledged to grill Fauci when they take control of the House of Representatives in January, after locking horns repeatedly with the top immunologist over Covid vaccines, mask mandates and other pandemic-related issues.

Fauci is due to step down this month as President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor as well as director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

(With inputs from agencies)

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