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The Pope of Science: Babylon Bee trolls Dr Fauci in epic fashion

In a recent interview, Fauci labeled criticisms of him as 'attacks on science'

Dr Anthony Fauci, America's top health expert on the Covid-19 pandemic, was hilariously mocked by a conservative satire website as having declared himself the "Pope of Science" following comments he made in a recent interview.

Fauci, 80, is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden. In a recent interview, he labeled criticisms of him as "attacks on science" -- something the disease expert has been excoriated for in the past. However, Fauci's most recent claims have also inspired several humorous takes, one of them being a piece by conservative satire website The Babylon Bee titled 'Fauci Dons Funny Hat, Declares Himself To Be Pope Of Science.'

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The Bee comically reported, "In a stunning reveal, Dr. Fauci has appeared on camera in an ornate and funny hat, and is now declaring himself the 'Pope of Science." The newspaper then 'quoted' him as saying, "Look at my shiny hat! Woooo-ooo! I have been chosen by science to speak on behalf of science! My very words are as infallible as the natural laws of the universe itself! If anyone doesn't like me, or disagrees with anything I say, or makes fun of my glasses, they will be excommunicated—banished to everlasting darkness," the new Pope is said to have declared.

"Fauci's eyes then rolled back in his head as he began uttering in a dead ancient Sumerian language," the Bee reported, before noting how he had appointed "Greta Thunberg as his high priestess of Earth, President Xi Jinping as his priest of infectious diseases, and 3,200 Pfizer lobbyists as agents to administer the sacrament of the vaccine."

The outlet reported that "Pope Fauci" had issued a "Papal Bull condemning Senator Rand Paul" and "called for him to be burned at the stake."

Paul and fellow Republican Senator Ted Cruz blasted Fauci on Sunday after the White House medical adviser described his critics as "anti-science."

“Anybody [who] spins, lies and threatens and all that theater that goes on with some of the investigations and the congressional committees and the Rand Pauls and all that other nonsense, that’s noise,” Fauci said on CBS’ 'Face the Nation', with moderator Margaret Brennan. “I’m just going to do my job. And I’m going to be saving lives, and they’re going to be lying.”

Cruz and Paul have accused Fauci of lying to Congress about the funding of gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, by the National Institutes of Health. A lab in Wuhan is believed to be the origin of the pandemic and where some believe the deadly virus leaked due to poor safety protocols. Cruz has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci after he testified to Congress that the NIH did not fund gain-of-function research.

When Brennan asked Fauci about Cruz's move on Sunday, the doctor said he'd "have to laugh at that," adding, "I should be prosecuted? What happened on January 6th, Senator?” In response, Cruz took to Twitter and called Fauci “an unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans.”

“On May 11, Fauci testified before a Senate Committee that ‘the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,'” Cruz noted. “On October 20, NIH wrote they funded an experiment at the Wuhan lab testing if ‘spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.’ That is gain of function research." He added, “Fauci’s statement and the NIH’s October 20 letter cannot both be true. The statements are directly contradictory. No amount of ad hominem insults parroting Democrat talking points will get Fauci out of this contradiction.”

The Texas Republican concluded by demanding that Fauci “address the substance—in detail, with specific factual corroboration—or DOJ should consider prosecuting him for making false statements to Congress.”

“Anybody who’s looking at this carefully realizes that there’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this [criticism]," Fauci told Brennan. "So if they get up and criticize science, nobody’s going to know what they’re talking about. But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, well, people could recognize, there’s a person there." He added, “So it’s easy to criticize. But they’re really criticizing science, because I represent science. That’s dangerous.”

Paul responded on Twitter, writing, “The absolute hubris of someone claiming THEY represent science. It’s astounding and alarming that a public health bureaucrat would even think to claim such a thing, especially one who has worked so hard to ignore the science of natural immunity.“

That said, Fauci has the strong support of the Biden administration that has repeatedly defended him against criticism from Republicans. On Sunday, the administration's top health expert denied that he considered resigning at the height of the pandemic last year after being blasted by members of the Trump administration.