Covid 19

No, Dr Anthony Fauci hasn’t been fired by U.S for his handling of COVID-19

Written by Md Mahfooz Alam

A video of a press conference has been doing the rounds with the claim that Dr Anthony Fauci has been fired by the U.S government for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Fauci is the chief medical adviser of the U.S President and also overseas National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as a Director. He has worked as an adviser to the last seven U.S Presidents. He has been in the news a lot since the COVID-19 began.

The caption of the viral video reads: “Dr Faucci sacked. US admits virus is man-made. Dr Fauci becomes the first wicket to fall in usa administration & Many More is yet Come. Though slightly late. COVID 19 WATCH THE VIDEO”. (Archived)

Several other users have also made the same claim. The archived links to the posts can be read here, here, and here.

FactO Check:

The viral video is a short clip of a longer video, but the claim along with the viral video is misleading. On the website of NIAID, Dr Fauci hasn’t been fired, he still holds the position of Director of NIAID.

(Photo Source: NIAID/Screenshot)

To trace the origin of the original video, we broke the video into Keyframes using the InVId chrome extension and reverse searched keyframe images. The result led us to a video live-streamed on June 15 on the YouTube channel of NowThis News, titled: “Marjorie Taylor Greene and House Republicans Discuss Fire Fauci Act”. The video is over 49 minutes long and the viral video of 2 minutes 20 seconds is clipped from this video at about 11 minutes 25 seconds to 13 minutes 44 seconds.

The lady addressing the press conference is Marjorie Taylor Greene, a politician and U.S representative for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She has also not claimed in the viral video as Dr Fauci has already been fired. However, she is speaking critically of Dr Fauci and also sponsoring a “Fire Fauci Act” along with the other Republican lawmakers.

According to the “Fire Fauci Act”, Dr Fauci should be removed from his position and the Senate should place someone else in his position. In the press conference, talking about the leaked emails, she claimed coronavirus is a man-made virus developed in the Wuhan laboratory of China which was funded by American tax dollars. So, blaming COVID-19 on Dr Fauci, she wants him to be held accountable and fired from his position.

Conclusion: The viral video is true but the claim along with the video is false. Marjorie Taylor Greene had held a press conference to sponsor a bill/act to fire Dr Fauci but according to the website of NIAID, he continues at his position.

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About the author

Md Mahfooz Alam

Mahfooz is a multimedia journalist and regularly writes fact-check stories for Facto News. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has worked as an intern fact-checker for The Quint. He specializes in research and fact-checking and aspires to do investigative reporting.

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