A video published online for a forthcoming PBS documentary about former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci shows the doctor arguing with a Washington, D.C., man about vaccines and their efficacy.
One man challenged Fauci and Bowser by saying that “the people in America are not settled with the information that’s been given to us right now,” adding: “I’m not going to be lining up taking a shot on a vaccination for something that wasn’t clear in the first place.”
He asked both Fauci and Bowser about how long it took to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that “nine months is definitely not enough for nobody to be taking no vaccination that you all came up with.” The man said it “takes years” to come up with a vaccine.
In response, Fauci defended the research into the vaccine and suggested mRNA vaccination technology took 20 years to perfect. It took “about 20 years of science” to get to this point, Fauci argued.
Bowser defended the shots and suggested she would not have been out walking around pushing for vaccinations if she wasn’t. “The only reason I’m talking to you right now, as close as we are, is that I’ve been vaccinated,” the Democrat mayor told the man.
“If thousands of people like you don’t get vaccinated, you’re going to let this virus continue to percolate in this country and in this world,” Bowser added.
The unnamed man shot back: “Something like the common flu then, right?”
The man told the two that he “definitely” would not get COVID-19 vaccines “because when you start talking about paying people to get vaccinated, when you start talking about incentivizing things to get people vaccinated, it’s something else going on with that.”
The government’s “campaign is about fear,” the man said. “It’s about inciting fear in people. You all attack people with fear. That’s what this pandemic is. It’s a fear, it’s fear, this pandemic. That’s all it is.” Bowser and Fauci were then seen walking away.
Another Clip
Another clip from the PBS program showed a woman in the same district challenging the pair: “I heard that [the COVID-19 shot] doesn’t cure it, and it doesn’t stop you from getting it.”Fauci replied: “On the very, very, very rare chance that you do get it even if you’re vaccinated, it’s a very—you don’t even feel sick. It’s like you don’t even know you got infected. It’s very, very good at protecting you.”
In that same clip, Fauci was heard denigrating Republican-led states in a conversation with Bowser.
Those states “are going to keep the outbreak smoldering in the country [because they won’t get vaccinated]. It’s so crazy. They’re not doing it because they say they don’t want to. They’re Republicans. They don’t like being told what to do. We need to break that,” Fauci said.
Late last year, Fauci left the federal government, departing both his National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House COVID-19 adviser positions. The longtime official was named head of the federal agency in 1984, but it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that he became a household name, appearing in hundreds—or even thousands—of media interviews since early 2020.
