‘I Don’t Have a Clue’: Fauci Puzzled By DeSantis Covid-19 Vaccine Investigation, Warns ‘Politicizing’ Has ‘Cost Lives’
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN on Wednesday he doesn’t “have a clue” what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is “asking for” in wanting to investigate the Covid-19 vaccines and warned that politicization of science and the vaccines has “cost lives.”
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He’s now asking the Florida Supreme Court to greenlight an investigation into, in the way he put it, is any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to COVID-19 vaccines? What’s your reaction to that?” asked anchor Kate Bolduan.
“I don’t have a clue, Kate, what he’s asking for. I mean, we have a vaccine that unequivocally is highly effective and safe and has saved literally millions of lives,” Fauci replied, adding:
The Commonwealth Fund has come out with a report just this past week that vaccinations that have been administered over this period of time, this last year and a half to two years, has saved 3.2 million lives, 18 million hospitalizations, and approximately $1 trillion in costs. So what’s the problem with vaccines? I mean, vaccines are lifesaving. So, quite frankly, Kate, I’m not sure what what they’re trying to do down there.
“It kind of gets at a bigger issue. I’ve been wanting to ask you, as in one of our final interviews in in your role in public health is just the reason that one result of the pandemic has sadly been that science has become a divisive topic, politicized and weaponized by some people. Have you thought about how do you pull that back? How do you turn that around?” Bolduan followed up.
“You know, Kate, if I had an easy answer, I’d give it to you. But it’s a very difficult situation. You’re absolutely correct. It has been politicized and it has been politicized in a way that has actually cost lives,” said Fauci in response.
“Because if people don’t get vaccinated, which unequivocally is life-saving because of political ideology or because of misinformation and disinformation that causes lives. And we’ve just got to get the American public, regardless of whether you lean left, you lean right, it doesn’t matter at all,” he added, concluding:
We’re all in this together. We’re all human beings and we’re all susceptible to disease that can kill us. So if ever there was a time in society when we need to pull together and recognize that the common enemy is the virus, not each other, we’ve got to get people to appreciate that. You know, like I said, I don’t have an easy answer how we’re going to do that. But when people’s lives are being lost about this, maybe that’ll shake people up enough to realize that we’ve got to start pulling together and not against each other.
Watch the full clip above via CNN
