Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday claimed during testimony before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that unvaccinated individuals are “probably responsible” for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases made the remark in response to Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California asking whether he believes the public should listen to the best and brightest in the medical community or “podcasters, conspiracy theorists, and unhinged Facebook memes.”
Fauci said taking the latter's advice will deprive people of “lifesaving interventions, which has happened.”
He then pointed to studies, including one analysis by Dr. Peter Hotez, that shows “people who refuse to get vaccinated for any of a variety of reasons, [are] probably responsible for an additional 200,000—300,000 deaths in this country.”
Fauci blames the unvaccinated for killing 200-300k people in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/F170MlSXpf
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 3, 2024
In another exchange with Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) about the effectiveness about the vaccines, however, Fauci admitted it was a "complicated issue."
While arguing the vaccines "did have an effect" initially, as time went on their durability against infection and transmission waned significantly.
"It’s important to point out something that we did not know early on that became evidence as the months went by, is that the durability of protection against infection, and hence transmission was relatively limited, whereas the duration of protection against disease, hospitalization and deaths was more prolonged,” Fauci claimed.
“In the beginning, it was felt that in fact it did prevent infection and thus transmission but that was proven as time went by, to not be a durable effect,” he added.
Dr. Fauci is pressed on the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 3, 2024
Chairman Wenstrup: Despite statements to the contrary, [the vaccine] did not stop transmission of the virus. Did the COVID vaccine stop transmission of the virus?
Fauci: That is a complicated issue! pic.twitter.com/sQk3xICpPP
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