Dr. Fauci Has Been Rejecting Invites to Go on Fox News Since July: Report

Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious diseases expert, has been rejecting invitations to appear on Fox News, having last been on the network in July, according to Politico.

According to Politico’s West Wing Playbook newsletter on Wednesday – written by Alex Thompson, Sarah Owermohle, and Tina Sfondeles – “It’s not for lack of an invitation.”

Shows across the cable news channel, including ones with news hosts like BRET BAIER and NEIL CAVUTO, have been trying to book Fauci for months but he’s been turning them down, according to an official familiar with bookings at Fox News.

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Fauci likely has limited effectiveness with Fox News’ audience anyway, in part because of Fox News’ steady drumbeat of critical coverage of mask mandates, lockdowns, and other measures to stop Covid’s spread. And it’s one of the reasons Fauci, who for decades has served as one of the nation’s most reliable voices on public health, has emerged as a partisan lightning rod over the 18-plus months of the pandemic.

Fauci did appear on one Fox program on October 17: Fox News Sunday with anchor Chris Wallace.

The newsletter also remarked that “Fauci’s absence from Fox shows also means that the Biden administration’s most public-facing figure in the effort to contain Covid-19 is not a presence on the country’s most watched cable news network, with an audience that includes many of the people the Biden team is still trying to get vaccinated.”

This story has been updated to note that Fauci appeared on a Fox program in October.