Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update: I want to talk about Tony Fauci and the critics of Tony Fauci. 1/

A few years back, on the heels of the SARS & MERS viruses, Tony Fauci, who is a scientist, made significant investments in the mRNA vaccine platform so we could be ready for the next pandemic.

Best I can tell, his critics, not scientists, did not. 2/

On January 10, 2020, Tony Fauci & his team began developing a vaccine, over the next 2 months isolating the protein, stabilizing the mRNA,
& running a clinical trial.

At that time, and for the next 2 months, Donald Trump denied the pandemic existed. 3/

Looking back, if there were no mRNA platform that Fauci decided to fund, there would be only a few limited, slightly less effective & less scalable vaccines.

Looking back, if Donald Trump had simply warned the country about the pandemic, more people would be alive today. 4/

The scientific advice Tony Fauci provides is carefully researched & sourced & based on the best evidence at the time, decades of pattern recognition & consultation with the best scientists.

Criticism of Fauci comes from Facebook & other less scientific publications. 5/

Unlike those at Moderna, Biontech, and other firms involved in the vaccine development, Fauci makes a government salary & has only made a government salary for decades.

He and his wife have dedicated their entire lives & considerable talents to the public & scientific good. 6/

It would stand to reason that having the foresight to make the investments at a time when most of us had never heard of coronavirus that are now bringing us out of the pandemic would cause at a minimum some level of acknowledgement if not gratitude. 7/

For whatever reason, rather than appreciation, for many, Fauci has become a convenient target of anger, anti-science rhetoric, and violent threats. 8/

All of us who have served the public can handle criticism. Indeed, it is a healthy part of a transparent process. And we know it goes with the territory.

The level of vitriol from conservative media veers considerably from acceptable criticism. It’s nothing but destructive. 9/

The criticism also fails to answer the question: OK, what’s your alternative?

Where would we be without him? What would you do instead?

I get no comfort from imagining Rand Paul or Tucker Carlson having to make life or death decisions for us. 10/

If the alternative to Tony Fauci is Scott Atlas, I hope we have the wisdom to choose the deep over the shallow, doers over second guessers, the research over the sound bite, the scientist over the cable TV pundit, and the institutions which serve us vs the improvisers. end/