Twitter CEO Elon Musk took a jab at Dr. Anthony Fauci in a tweet Sunday as Republicans have threatened to investigate Fauci’s knowledge of gain-of-function research related to coronaviruses that his department funded.
Fauci is stepping down from his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases after five decades.
Musk tweeted Sunday that his pronouns are “prosecute/Fauci.”
My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
Fauci has been the subject of potential investigations, which could happen when Republicans take control of the House in January. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has threatened a wave of oversight, ranging from whether the coronavirus leaked from a lab, whether the virus was funded in part by gain-of-function research, and whether members of the FDA received royalties from the companies that created the coronavirus vaccine. (RELATED: Fauci Was Warned About Possible Gain-Of-Function Creation Of COVID-19 In January 2020, Newly Transcribed Emails Show)
A letter from the National Institutes of Health Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak to the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance called out the group for failing to notify the NIAID that it had created lab-generated chimeric coronavirus with the Wuhan Institute of Virology between June 2018 and May 2019 that was far more deadly than the natural virus it was derived from. When questioned on said letter and information, Fauci refused to call it “gain of function.”
The NIAID, which was led by Fauci at the time, had approved the EcoHealth Alliance research grant in China, which involved the transfer of $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, despite Fauci’s insistence that his agency did not fund gain-of-function research in China.
Musk has been outspoken against “fascist” government-imposed lockdowns throughout the pandemic, saying in 2020 that the government needs to “give people back their goddamn freedom.”
“This is the time to think about the future, and also to ask, is it right to infringe upon people’s rights as what is happening right now?” Musk said. “If somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great, they should be allowed to stay in the house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist.”