TIME Magazine has named Dr. Anthony Fauci a “Guardian of the Year” for his role in combating the coronavirus and correcting President Donald Trump’s “lies.”
Fauci is a prominent member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, which Vice President Mike Pence has led for nearly a year. Fauci received the accolade alongside frontline healthcare workers and “racial justice organizers,” TIME wrote.
“In Washington, Dr. Anthony Fauci led not only the battle against COVID-19 but also the fight for truth—clear, consistent messaging being fundamental to public health,” TIME wrote. “With steadfast integrity, Fauci nudged, elided and gently corrected a President used to operating in a reality of his own construction, buoyed by the fervent repetition of lies.”
Frontline healthcare workers include the doctors and nurses who have cared for the millions of COVID-19 patients throughout the U.S. since early spring. The pandemic overwhelmbed numerous hospitals across the country, and despite a lull in the summer, cases are skyrocketing once again. The U.S. has now suffered more than 290,000 deaths.
TIME also credited racial justice organizers for harnessing “a wave of outrage” over the killing of Georgia Floyd in Minneapolis to “bring millions to the streets.” (RELATED: Kenosha Riots Have Destroyed $2 Million In City-Owned Property)
Protests against the death of Floyd and others have frequently escalated into violent riots across the country in recent months, with some wreckage still awaiting cleanup in Minneapolis and Kenosha, Wisconsin.