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Critics didn’t miss the hypocrisy Sunday as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) attacked infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and the science of COVID-19 a week after he took advantage of an early vaccine to protect himself against the virus.
Rubio, who has often downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and has blown off wearing a mask in mass gatherings even as cases of the virus were spiking, hasn’t once criticized the disinformation or dismissive attitude about COVID-19 from President Donald Trump. (Check out the video above.)
Yet he slammed Fauci’s advice, claiming in a tweet that the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases “lied about masks” (in March) and “has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity.”
Fauci, concerned at the start of the pandemic that a mask shortage would put health-care workers at risk, initially downplayed masks for the public. But he has for several months strongly and repeatedly advised that everyone wear a mask.
As for herd immunity, Fauci and other health experts until recently have said up to 70% of the population would need to get the vaccine to reach herd immunity. But based on updated estimates, Fauci has increased that in the past week to between 70% and 85%.
Rubio also attacked Americans in “elite bubbles” in his tweet. Yet Rubio joined an elite bubble when he became one of the first Americans to get a vaccine against COVID-19, jumping the line ahead of countless elderly Americans, first responders and healthcare workers at far bigger risk of contracting the disease than he is. He tweeted a photo of himself being inoculated last Saturday.
Followers on Twitter let the Florida senator have it.
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