Dr Anthony Fauci has again claimed that people who criticize him for his COVID-19 'flip-flopping' are actually condemning science itself.
The White House coronavirus tsar struck a cranky tone in an upcoming New York Times podcast interview, where he claimed any changes in his recommendations were solely based on evolving data as the COVID crisis continued.
Fauci said: 'It is essential as a scientist that you evolve your opinion and your recommendations based on the data as it evolves...
'And that's the reason why I say people who then criticize me about that are actually criticizing science.
'[T]he people who are giving the ad hominems are saying, "Ah, Fauci misled us. First he said no masks, then he said masks."
'Well, let me give you a flash. That's the way science works. You work with the data you have at the time.'
Fauci, 80, initially told Americans not to worry about wearing face masks early in the COVID crisis in spring 2020. He later became a huge supporter of public masking, and claimed his early dismissal of face coverings had been to try and conserve then-tight supplies for medical staff.
Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke to podcast host Kara Swisher of The New York Times for her show Sway, which airs on Monday
The veteran immunologist - who has served as director of the National Institutes of Health since 1984 - has also faced criticism for initially steering conversation away from claims that COVID may have leaked from a Wuhan virus lab.
He now says he is open to that theory.
Fauci said that he was unbothered by both the praise and condemnation that has come as a result of him being the de-facto 'face' of the US COVID crisis, but said he was shocked to have received criticism likening him to Adolf Hitler.
In the preview of his podcast interview, shared with Axios, he said he puts 'very little weight in the adulation, and very little weight in the craziness of condemning me.'
'It gets preposterous, and the thing that bothers you most of all is the impact it has on your family,' Fauci continued.
'I mean, getting death threats and getting your daughters and your wife threatened with obscene notes and threatening notes is not fun. So I can't say that doesn't bother me.
'The more extreme they get, the more obvious how political it is ... "Fauci has blood in his hands.' Are you kidding me? ... Here's a guy whose entire life has been devoted to saving lives, and now you're telling me he's like Hitler? You know, come on, folks. Get real.'
Swisher asked the 80-year-old how he felt about the criticism of him 'flip flopping' on mask mandates
Republican critics are calling for Fauci, who is now Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, to be fired.
Retailers were doing a roaring trade during the pandemic in deities with Fauci's face on them, and candles fit for a Fauci shrine.
And Brad Pitt took heed of Fauci's joking remark that he'd like the Hollywood star to play him in a movie of his life, appearing as the doctor on a Saturday Night Live sketch.
The feeling was equally strong on the other side, however, and in April 2020 he was given bodyguards.
Fauci, seen at a May 26 hearing in Congress to discuss the budget for his NIAID, has spent four decades as the nation's top public health expert
