Who got hold of Anthony Fauci's emails? Bemused by ‘Fauci Fever’, he called Trumpers ‘crazy people’
Over 3000 emails sent to and from Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading expert on the coronavirus pandemic, were uncovered by Buzzfeed News and The Washington Post recently that show his response to the pandemic in its initial stages. The emails have seen been widely circulated, reported on, and criticized on both conventional and social media, with Twitter dubbing the expose 'Faucileaks', now trending as a hashtag.
The emails have become controversial since they were released to the public, especially since conversations between Fauci and others establish him denying he was ever "muzzled" by then-president Donald Trump and his administration. The emails' and Fauci's own legitimacy as a credible source of information on the pandemic has also been put up for debate. Many have labeled his handling of the pandemic "incompetence" while him claiming masks weren't entirely "effective" has kicked off a whole other narrative of Fauci being an anti-masker himself.
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Who got hold of Fauci's emails?
The emails from the pandemic's most trusted source in the US, and as revealed by his mails, also Italian media, happened through lawsuits filed by both the media houses that published the emails. Both Buzzfeed News and The Washington Post filed individual Freedom of Information Act lawsuits which allowed them access to mails sent to the long-term director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. On March 31, The Washington Post published the 866 emails between March and April of 2020 that they were able to obtain from the lawsuit. Just a day later on June 1, Buzzfeed News put up their 3200 pages of emails between January and June of 2020 that they gathered from their lawsuit.
In their article detailing the emails, Buzzfeed News headlines the entire saga of conversations Fauci had to encounter as "The Pressure That Fell On One Man". The Washington Post's most significant takeaway, presented in the form of their headline, quotes Fauci saying "All is well despite some crazy people in this world," in response to an email expressing concern surrounding his safety, in the wake of threats from Trump supporters.
The mails see Fauci being praised for being a "science-teller" and at one time approached by a White House official to pen an op-ed, which he forwards to his staff, asking for suggestions of how best to politely decline. Fauci also expresses interest in collaborating with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to build more accessible vaccine "hubs." And he seems bemused by the country's growing fondness with him to the point where he is branded a sex symbol. Sending links to 'Cuomo Crush' and 'Fauci Fever' he urged one of his email recipients to click on them, adding "Our society is really totally nuts."
Fauci's emails also show him writing to film actors like Morgan Fairchild, urging them to retweet credible news and information about the pandemic on to their "many followers" on Twitter. Lighter moments from the slew of emails also see him admitting back in February 2020, a week before Coronavirus was declared a global pandemic, that he had seen his wife for just a total of 45 minutes in the last 10 days.