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On Monday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC, fill-in host Kasie Hunt and contributor Mike Barnicle trashed Senator Marco Rubio after the Florida Republican sent out a tweet on Sunday complaining that Dr. Anthony Fauci has a history of conflicting statements about pandemic-related issues, and recently suggesting he delayed “the truth” until the public could handle it.
Barnicle called Rubio’s reaction to Fauci “an obscenity” and wrongly suggested that the Florida Senator had opposed mask-wearing.
At 7:25 a.m. Eastern, Hunt played a clip of Dr. Fauci from Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN in which he claimed that he recently changed his projections to call for a higher percentage of Americans to be vaccinated, suggesting that it was just because of new scientific discoveries.
Hunt then showed a tweet Senator Rubio sent out Sunday, and then disapprovingly called out Senator Rubio for alleged “hypocrisy” as she recalled his tweet’s criticism of Dr. Fauci
KASIE HUNT: Not everyone, though, is accepting Dr. Fauci’s revised estimate on just how many Americans should take the coronavirus vaccine. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida accused Dr. Fauci of quote, “lying about masks” and quote, “distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity.” Many on Twitter pointed out Senator Rubio’s hypocrisy.
She then uncritically read a tweet of Democratic ex-Secretary of Labor Robert Reich responding to Senator Rubio: “After months of downplaying the virus, Marco Rubio is now attacking Dr. Fauci but he was first in line to get vaccinated?” (All this politicizing of the virus recalls George Will denouncing Reich for being a “pyromaniac in a field of straw men.”)
After reading another anti-Rubio tweet written by fired data scientist Rebekah Jones, who has been critical of Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic, Hunt went to Barnicle for his reaction. The Morning Joe regular tore into Rubio and Republicans, making several accusations without any evidence:
It’s a definition of obscenity, you know, what Marco Rubio said, what he tweeted. You know, about Anthony Fauci, the fact that he even stood in line and was among the first to get vaccinated after making fun of vaccinations, after ignoring COVID, after ignoring helping people, after standing up in support of Donald Trump.
Barnicle went after Republicans as he added:
And one of the great subplots of this story when history is written is going to be: What happened in the United States Senate among the Republican membership of the United States? What were they thinking? What were they doing when they witnessed all of these other obscenities that have been inflicted upon America and American citizens for the last four years? What were they thinking? And Marco Rubio is not alone.
There’s a long list of cowards who wilted in the face of Twitter being afraid of a tweet from the President of the United States, Kasie. It’s not a very proud moment in the United States Senate. It’s certainly not a very proud moment for Marco Rubio as an individual.
But Senator Rubio not only spoke out in favor of wearing masks as the topic was being debated last June and July, he also has a point in accusing Dr. Fauci of lying in March to put Americans off from buying masks that were needed by medical personnel. Dr. Fauci even admitted eventually in June that the real reason he and other health officials tried to dissuade Americans from wearing masks in March was to reserve masks for health care workers.
Even stridently liberal comedian Stephen Colbert played a clip of Dr. Fauci’s flip-flop on masks and called him out for “lying to the American public” on the issue.
Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams even claimed in March that wearing masks would increase the likelihood of contracting the virus.
More recently, in the interview Dr. Fauci gave with the New York Times, he admitted that his earlier, more optimistic, projection for how many Americans would need the COVID-19 vaccine for herd immunity wasn’t what he really thought, and recently changed his estimates after public opinion showed more support for vaccination from the public.
So Rubio was making a rational complaint that the public had deliberately been misled about some aspects of the pandemic.
This episode of MSNBC’s Morning Joe was sponsored in part by Sleep Number. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
December 28, 2020
7:25 a.m. Eastern
KASIE HUNT: Up to 90 percent — that is the latest estimate from Dr. Anthony Fauci on just how many Americans would need to get vaccinated for the U.S. to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus. Dr. Fauci’s new estimate came in an interview with the New York Times after he revised his numbers up from 60 percent to 70 percent of the population, since the start of the pandemic, to about 75 percent to 80 percent this month. He said that his most recent estimate is based at least partly on science and partly based on his feeling that the public is finally prepared to hear what he really thinks.
Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI: We have to realize that we have to be humble and realize what we don’t know. These are pure estimates and the calculations that I made — 70, 75 percent — it’s a range. The range is going to be somewhere between 70 and 85 percent — I brought it to 85, that’s not a big leap to go from 75 to 85, but it was really based on calculations and pure extrapolations from measles. Measles is about 98 percent effective vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine is about 94, 95 percent. (editing jump) So the bottom line is, it’s a guesstimate. I gave a range and I use any discussion like we’re having now, Dana, to encourage people to get to that goal of 70 to 85 percent of the people vaccinated. That’s where we want to be.
HUNT: Not everyone, though, is accepting Dr. Fauci’s revised estimate on just how many Americans should take the coronavirus vaccine. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida accused Dr. Fauci of quote, “lying about masks” and quote, “distorting the level of
vaccination needed for herd immunity.” Many on Twitter pointed out Senator Rubio’s hypocrisy. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich tweeted, quote, “After months of downplaying the virus, Marco Rubio is now attacking Dr. Fauci but he was first in line to get vaccinated?”Former data scientist for Florida’s Department of Health, who claims to have been fired for refusing to manipulate the state’s COVID-19 data, replied to Senator Rubio, writing, in part, quote, “Attacking scientists for not knowing everything they need to know about a novel virus is absurd.”
Mike Barnicle, Marco Rubio out there calling Dr. Anthony Fauci a liar just a few days after he himself because he’s a member of Congress got to be first in line to take this vaccine even though he’s young and healthy and at much lower risk than many other Americans. Joe is not here to opine on Marco Rubio who is obviously a favorite topic of ours. What do you think about what the Senator said?
MIKE BARNICLE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: It’s a definition of obscenity, you know, what Marco Rubio said, what he tweeted. You know, about Anthony Fauci, the fact that he even stood in line and was among the first to get vaccinated after making fun of vaccinations, after ignoring COVID, after ignoring helping people, after standing up in support of Donald Trump. And he’s not alone.
And one of the great subplots of this story when history is written is going to be: What happened in the United States Senate among the Republican membership of the United States? What were they thinking? What were they doing when they witnessed all of these other obscenities that have been inflicted upon America and American citizens for the last four years? What were they thinking? And Marco Rubio is not alone. There’s a long list of cowards who wilted in the face of Twitter being afraid of a tweet from the President of the United States, Kasie. It’s not a very proud moment in the United States Senate. It’s certainly not a very proud moment for Marco Rubio as an individual.
(…)
June 12, 2020 interview with TheStreet.com
KATHERINE ROSS, THESTREET HOST: Why were we told later in the spring to wear them when we initially were told not to?
(…)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Now, getting back to your first question, which was, “What about month or so or two or three ago, when people were saying, ‘You don’t really need to wear a mask’?”
Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned — the public health community and many people were saying this — were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply.
And we wanted to make sure that the people — namely, the health care workers who were brave enough to put themselves in harm way to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected — we did not want them to be without the equipment that they needed.
So there was not an enthusiasm about going out and everybody buying a mask or getting a mask. We were afraid that that would deter away from the people who really needed it.
Now, we have masks. We know that you don’t need an N95 — an ordinary person in the street. We also know that simple cloth coverings that many people have can work as well as a mask in many cases.
So, right now, unequivocally, the recommendation is, when you’re out there — particularly if you’re in a situation where there’s active infection — keep the distance physically and wear a mask. So, although there appears to be some contradiction of “We were saying this then,” and, “Why are you saying this now?” actually circumstances have changed. That’s the reason why.
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