#Anthony Fauci says family needs security over death threats, continuing harassment

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said he and his family have needed continued security because of harassment and death threats over his statements about the coronavirus pandemic.

“Getting death threats for me and my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security is just, I mean, it’s amazing,” Fauci said during an interview with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday.

“I wish that they did not have to go through that.”

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert has had his own security detail since at least April, in the face of the mounting threats.

Fauci didn’t go into detail, but noted that threats and harassment are part of the “unseemly things that crises bring out in the world,” adding: “It brings out the best of people and the worst of people.”

Fauci, 79, also expressed shock that people could be so misguided.

“I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it, and don’t like what you and I say, namely in the word of science, that they actually threaten you,” he said.

“I mean, that to me is just strange.”

Fauci, a member of the White House pandemic task force, noted that some “anti-science” sentiment in the US is making it difficult for people to follow COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as wearing masks.

“There is a degree of anti-science feeling in this country, and I think it is not just related to science. It’s almost related to authority and a mistrust in authority that spills over,” he said.

The conversation took place on an online forum sponsored by Harvard’s School of Public Health and was streamed live on Facebook.