Dr. Anthony Fauci has argued that he has been an easy target for conspiracy theorists because he makes recommendations based on 'science, data and hard facts' - and that becomes an 'inconvenient truth' for them.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Fauci said: 'I have stood for always making science data and evidence, be what we guide ourselves by and I think people who feel differently, who have conspiracy theories, who deny reality, that's looking them straight in the eye.'
'Those are people that don't particularly care for me, and that's understandable because what I do and I try very hard is to be guided by the truth. Sometimes the truth becomes inconvenient for some people, so they react against me.'
The immunologist, reiterating that 'under normal circumstances' — which he notes we currently are not in — he is 'not comfortable' telling people how to act.
However, he argued that a fifth wave of the virus is possible if there is not a spike in vaccinations and is once again encouraging Americans to get the jab.
Dr. Anthony Fauci claims he has been both praised and ridiculed throughout the pandemic because of his role as President Joe Biden's chief medical expert
'It's going to be in our capability to prevent that from happening,' Fauci said.
'The numbers are going down, cases are down about 23 percent. Hospitalizations and deaths are down about 17 or 18 percent, so we're going in the right direction. The problem is, as we all know, we still have approximately 66 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not vaccinated.'
Fauci argued that that degree to which COVID-19 cases decline will depend on how well the nation does at increasing vaccination rates.
'If we don't do very well in that regard, there's always the danger that they're be enough circulating virus that you can have a stalling of the diminishing of the number of cases and when that happens, as we've seen in the past with other waves that we've been through, there's the danger of resurgence,' he explained.
However, he emphasized, repeatedly, that Americans have the ability to prevent another surge this winter by the recommended vaccinations and booster shots — for those who qualify.
Fauci on why he thinks he's become polarizing: "People [who] have conspiracy theories, who deny reality that's looking them straight in the eye, those are ppl that don't particularly care for me. And that's understandable... sometimes the truth becomes inconvenient for some ppl." pic.twitter.com/5OLmYeGaPn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2021
Fauci argued that he has been an easy target for conspiracy theorists because he makes recommendations based on 'science, data and hard facts'
Although he claims 'under normal circumstances' he doesn't like to tell people what to do, Fauci reiterated that all eligible Americans need to get vaccinated in order to prevent a fifth wave of the virus
Fauci also announced on Sunday that Johnson & Johnson should have made their COVID-19 vaccine a two-dose shot.
He encourages Americans who received the J&J vaccine to get a booster for the one-jab vaccine as soon as it becomes available.
The immunologist issued the warning after a recent study found that the J&J shot's protection fell from 88 per cent in March to just three per cent in August.
'What the advisors to the FDA felt is that, given the data that they saw, very likely, this should have been a two dose vaccine to begin with,' Fauci said during a Sunday morning interview on This Week ABC.
'So the idea of making a recommendation that people who originally received J&J should receive a second dose — 18 or older with none of the restrictions about whether or not you're at a high risk or not at a high risk — is that everyone who received that first dose of J&J who are 18 and older should receive it.'
His comments came just days after a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee unanimously voted to recommend booster shots for adult J&J recipients.
Fauci also reiterated that J&J recipients should not be concerned about the jab's lower efficacy, in comparison to that of Pfizer or Moderna, but should instead 'feel good' about the booster recommendation.
He also confirmed that those who got the J&J jab could be better off by getting a booster shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, which were proven to be more effective.
'That is true, the data you refer to, that if you boost people who have originally received J&J with either Moderna or Pfizer, the level of antibodies that you induce in them is much higher than if you boost them with the original J&J,' Fauci said.
'However, you're talking about laboratory data, which very often are reflective of what you would see clinically. But the data of boosting the J&J first dose with a J&J second dose is based on clinical data. So what's going to happen is that the FDA is going to look at all those data, look at the comparison and make a determination of what they will authorize.'
He continued: 'Once an authorization is made, then the ACIP — or the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — that advises the CDC will then make a recommendation of what people who have been receiving and have received the J&J should do.
'So it's going to be a process of authorization first and then a recommendation after considering all the data.'
Fauci predicts that the CDC and FDA advisory committee's recommendations regarding whether or not J&J recipients should 'mix and match' booster shots 'will likely give a degree of flexibility based on the individual situation'.
'I think it's going to be variable depending upon who you are. For example, a woman of childbearing age who'd would have almost no issues at all with a possible adverse event of myocarditis — which you see, rarely but you do see it with the mRNA vaccine — that person might want to opt for that approach,' he stated.
'If you're a young man who does have that very, very rare
