The main epidemiologist of the US Government, Anthony Fauci, denounced this Tuesday before the Senate having received “death threats” because of the “lies” that the Republicans pour against him and revealed the arrest of a man who wanted to assassinate him weeks ago.
“I have received death threats, harassing my family and my children with obscene calls because people lie about me,” Fauci told the Upper House Health Committee in a tense scuffle with Republican Senator Rand Paul during an appearance on the records of contagions of covid-19.
The epidemiologist gave as an example that on December 21, the police in Iowa arrested a man who was traveling from Sacramento (California) to Washington to assassinate him.
“In his car they found an AR-15 rifle and various ammunition,” Fauci explained.
Previously, Paul accused him of “attacking scientists who disagree” with him and held Fauci responsible for the deaths of more than 800,000 Americans since the start of the pandemic.
For his part, Fauci regretted that the senator “uses the catastrophic epidemic for his political game.”
It is not the first encounter between Fauci and the Republican senator, since during a similar appearance last November, Paul hinted that the National Institutes of Health (NIH, in English), in charge of Fauci, funded an investigation in Wuhan (China) from which the new coronavirus resulted.
The United States broke a new record for hospitalizations due to covid-19 on Tuesday, with more than 145,000 people admitted to health centers, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS, in English).
In total, there are 145,982 hospitalized patients in the country with covid-19, of which 4,462 are minors.
The figure exceeds the 142,273 patients with covid-19 admitted on January 14, 2021, the highest number that had been registered so far since the start of the pandemic.
Along with Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also appeared before the Senate committee, who defended herself against the accusations received for the confusing recommendations that the agency has issued in recent days. .
“The main objective of the CDC is to translate science into the best recommendations for everyday life,” claimed the doctor.
He recalled that the quarantine for asymptomatic covid-19 patients is five days, a decision that was made due to the lack of personnel suffered by the country’s hospitals due to infections among medical personnel.
This story was originally published on January 11, 2022 1:10 pm.
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