Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that crowded college football stadiums would turn into “super-spreader events,” but many weeks later, an NBC reporter on the “Today” show pointed out it “never happened.”
“For weeks, crowds in the tens of thousands, mostly unmasked, have sat side-by-side now cheering on their teams at the halfway point of the season,” reported Shaquille Brewster on Saturday at the beginning of another day of college football.
“All while doctors warned of games becoming potential super-spreader events. A frightening prospect at the time with hospitals already on the brink.”
Brewster’s report recalled Fauci’s conversation in early September with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who said that as soon as she saw the images of packed stadiums, she “thought COVID is about to have a feast.”
“What did you think?” Reid asked Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the White House coronavirus adviser under both Presidents Trump and Biden.
“I thought the same thing. I think it’s really unfortunate,” Fauci said.
But Brewster, continuing his report, said “it never happened.”
“Cases are now in steep decline in every college football state across the South. Including Florida, where hospitalizations fell 64% percent last month, even as some 90,000 fans packed the [University of Florida] Gators’ stadium.”
See the segment, courtesy of the Media Research Center:
A little shocking! NBC report on how college football games are NOT “superspreader” events includes video of Joy Reid and Dr. Fauci sounding panicky notes. Ooooops. https://t.co/H8Bc2GoiPw pic.twitter.com/tjqapmVA2w
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) October 16, 2021
Fauci: I can’t think of anything I’ve done to make me ‘polarizing’
In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Fauci said he couldn’t think of any reason why people should think he is “polarizing.”
Anchor Chris Wallace posed the question.
“When this pandemic started, it is fair to say you were generally regarded as the authority on infectious disease. As time has gone on, you have become a polarizing figure, and critics accuse you of sending mixed messages,” Wallace said. “There’s allegations that you helped fund dangerous research at the Wuhan lab. Two questions, why do you think you’ve become so controversial? And honestly, do you think there’s anything you have done that has contributed to that?”
Fauci replied, “I can’t think of anything, but I’m sure some people will.”
He said he has “always stood for 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, looking them straight in the eye, those are people that don’t particularly care for me. And that’s understandable,” Fauci continued.
“Because what I do — and I try very hard — is to be guided by the truth. And sometimes, the truth becomes inconvenient for some people. So they react against me. That just is what it is. There’s not much I can do about that, Chris.”
In the interview Sunday, Fauci also said he feared that unvaccinated Americans could cause a fifth wave of COVID-19.
“It’s going to be within our capability to prevent that from happening – the numbers are going down – the cases are down about 23%, the hospitalizations and deaths are down 17-18%, so we’re going in the right direction,” Fauci said.
“The problem is, as we all know, we still have approximately 66 million people who are eligible to get vaccinated who are not vaccinated.”
Fauci also said that only vaccinated people can gather with fellow vaccinated family members for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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