Dr Anthony Fauci has become the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., in both a negative and positive sense.
For some, he is a comforting figure, leading the nation through a disaster. For others, he is the face of government overreach, mismanagement and overreaction.
Fauci, the man who serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), says the criticism and constant threats he and his family have received have taken a toll on him over time.
He blames former President Donald Trump and other conservative politicians for the nation's current state of divisiveness, and some of the failures of America's pandemic response.
Dr Anthony Fauci (pictured) told CBS' Sunday Morning that much of the criticism and fury he has received during the COVID-19 pandemic is a result of divisiveness in the U.S. right now. Pictured: Fauci speaks in an interview with the CBS show
Fauci is pushing for more Americans to get vaccinated, though their is a split along party lines of who is getting the shots. A recent poll finds that 90% of Democrats and only 61% of Republicans have received the jab. Pictured: A woman in Los Angeles, California, receives a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine
'You know, it's very, very tough, because if you keep lying about someone and keep spreading preposterous accusations, that they're going to be some people, if they hear that often enough, are going to believe it,' Fauci said of some of the claims made about him on social media and in some conservative political and media circles, to CBS' Sunday Morning over the weekend.
'But that's just the way it is. I can't change the fabric of society about social media and how it works.'
Fauci has been in the crosshairs of many since the pandemic first began and he became a household name in the U.S.
In recent months, he has received calls to resign from multiple sources.
In October, it was revealed that NIAID had performed brutal animal testing experiments on dogs and monkeys under Fauci's leadership.
After the report was revealed, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, a Republican, joined a chorus of people calling for Fauci to resign.
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has also accused Fauci of covering up information related to gain of function research funded by the U.S. government at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
Some believe that Covid, which originated in Wuhan, China, was developed by researchers at the WIV, and escaped when some got accidentally infected with it, in what is commonly referred to as the 'lad leak theory'.
While the theory is unlikely, and health officials say the virus likely originated in bats, the theory has not yet been removed as a possibility.
Fauci admits that he can not be sure how exactly funding the
