Dr. Fauci Calls Out CPAC For 'Ideological Rigidity' Regarding Vaccines

Shifting ever closer to political punditry and away from trusted medical expertise, Dr. Anthony Fauci went on CNN with Jake Tapper on Sunday to discuss the status of vaccination rates in America and the ongoing COVID-19 Delta variant, with some partisan analysis thrown in for good health.

After Tapper presented Fauci with a video from CPAC — Conservative Political Action Conference — featuring a speaker who brushed off the government's failed attempt to vaccinate 70% of the population by the Fourth of July, Fauci tried to bash white conservatives for choosing to forego vaccination.

The speaker at CPAC viewed the government's failed goal as a federal-level coercion halted by the free will of the American people, which Fauci called "horrifying."

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"It’s horrifying," commented Fauci. "I mean, they are cheering about someone saying it’s a good thing for people not to try and save their lives."

Fauci also added, "I mean, it’s ideological rigidity. I think there's no reason not to get vaccinated. Why are we having red states and places in the South, that are very highly ideological in one way, not wanting to get vaccinations – vaccinations have nothing to do with politics." 

Defending a vaccine created by the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed — which Fauci helped oversee — the once-trusted doctor came off as smug and demeaning toward Republicans.

Frequently relying on circumlocution, Fauci's scathing review of Republicans and comments directed at CPAC ignore the fact that vaccination rates in black and brown communities nationwide have fallen behind white and Asian American demographics.

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Jennifer Allen, a professor of community health at Tufts University, found that a survey looking at vaccination rates among races discovered that "white people are more likely to have been vaccinated than black people, despite similar levels of vaccine hesitancy, or saying they are very unlikely to get a vaccine."

According to an AARP report, "Whites received 78% of COVID-19 vaccinations," while only 13% of black communities have accepted a dose of the vaccine. Thirty-two percent of the Hispanic population has had at least one dose.

As news outlets usher the vaccination rate issue into a conversation about inequity, supply of the vaccines continues to outweigh the demand throughout the nation.

Fauci, seemingly unaware of the difference when talking with Tapper, called all skepticism against the vaccine meddling in a "life or death" situation, even though there has been a nearly 95% decrease in hospitalizations since COVID hit, despite the new Delta variant.

The current number of Americans who have received at least one dose has eclipsed 67% of the total population.

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