National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci on Tuesday brushed aside criticism from Twitter owner and right-wing troll Elon Musk, who has drawn widespread over his outrageous comments on the platform.
“I don’t pay attention to that,” Fauci said during an appearance on Andrea Mitchell’s daytime show on MSNBC when asked about Musk. “I mean, yeah, he has a big megaphone, but, I mean, the Twittersphere as it is has really gone berserk lately. It’s kind of become almost a cesspool of misinformation.”
Fauci’s comments come days after Musk fired off a tweet calling to prosecute the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who has emerged as a target of right-wing outrage during the coronavirus pandemic and whom congressional Republicans have teased an investigation of.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said on Twitter, mocking Fauci, later sharing a meme edited to show Fauci telling Biden, “Just one more lockdown, my king.”
During a separate appearance on political pundit David Axelrod’s podcast, Fauci said of Musk, “I don’t respond to him.”
“I don’t pay any attention to him because that’s merely a distraction,” he said. “And if you get drawn into that, and I have to be honest, that cesspool of interaction … there’s no value added to that, David. It doesn’t help anything.”
Watch Fauci’s interview with Adrea Mitchell below from MSNBC.
