Former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams denounced a wave of attacks from conservatives after Dr Anthony Fauci announced that he would step down as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID).
Mr Adams wrote on Twitter that it was “scary” to see such public vitriol from conservatives who are convinced that any public health guideline or rule was an illegal assault on Americans’ freedoms. The US’s Covid response was widely hampered by noncompliance with public health guidelines that were weak to begin with, leading the US to suffer more recorded deaths than any country on Earth.
“Scary to see so many just truly hateful comments about Dr. Fauci in the wake of news of his retirement. Scary because what does the world look like when hard working, Nation loving, and well intended people say, ‘Nope- not gonna do public service… not worth the vitriol!’?” tweeted the former administration official.
His warnings are far from alone, and the concerns they stem from extend into the private sector as well.
Many have raised similar concerns about the effect that the increasingly-militant right wing of US political thought is having on the greater fabric of society; more Americans fear for the future of democracy than ever before in recorded history, according to polling, and the concern that public attacks and scrutiny from the right wing will envelop more ordinary Americans is being blamed for worsening shortages of teachers, doctors, and other professions around the country.
Popular right-wing accounts like “LibsofTikTok” on Twitter have encouraged the harrassment and firings of teachers and others who express progressive beliefs in their private conversations and social media profiles and as of yet have only seen their actions encouraged by the non-action of Twitter and other platforms.
Dr Fauci himself was the target of countless inane conspiracies leveled by right-wingers throughout his tenure as NIAID chief, where he was responsible for mundane public health guidlines including mask-wearing, social distancing and intensive sanitisation that nevertheless drew the rage of right-wing conservatives. Many conservatives bought into lies about the virus itself that led to a lax attitude concerning the virus, an attitude which led to superspreader events like the White House event that caused the infection of Donald Trump and a number of other attendees.
