WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appears during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on “Coronavirus Preparedness and Response at the Rayburn House Office Building on March 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Health officials say 11,000 people have been tested for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the U.S. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared on Sunday, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” simultaneously swiping at the famous immunologist and offending Queer advocates.
Musk made the jab on his social media site, where he has a history of lambasting Covid protocols and the expansion of pronoun use.
Musk’s jab at Dr. Anthony Fauci was preempted by new CDC guidance to resume masking in public.
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“Truth resonates,” Musk tweeted on Monday, implying the outrage around his tweet indicates his accuracy.
The tweet has 1.1 million likes and 176,000 retweets.
“Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community,” former astronaut Scott Kelly said. “They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives.”
“I strongly disagree,” Musk fired back. “Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone. As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo.”
Musk has a long history of questioning Covid protocols in the U.S.
He declared Twitter was “no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy,” immediately after purchasing the company.
Musk violated California Covid regulations in 2020 when he reopened Tesla assembly lines despite government mandates. Weeks earlier, he tweeted, “the coronavirus panic is dumb.”
Musk’s Twitter takeover has concerned LGBTQ* advocates. On his first day as owner, he tweeted a homophobic conspiracy theory about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband, Paul Pelosi. He has long opposed the expansions on pronoun use, tweeting, “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.”
Fauci is the leader of the White House’s Covid Response Team. He is one of the U.S. government’s most recognizable public health advocates after serving on former President Donald Trump‘s Covid Task Force.
Fauci announced he would be stepping down from his duties by the end of this month.
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