Dr. Fauci says he ignores Elon Musk and ‘cesspool’ Twitter after ‘bizarre’ allegations

Elon who?

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said he doesn’t know or care what billionaire Elon Musk has said about him and derided his Twitter as a “cesspool of misinformation.”

“[Musk] has a big megaphone, but [Twitter] has really gone berserk lately. It’s kind of become almost a cesspool of misinformation,” Fauci said in an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC.

“I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t tweet and I don’t listen to tweets,” the Brooklyn-bred pandemic doctor said. “So whatever he said, I’m not paying attention to it.”

Musk has in recent days called for Fauci, who is leaving government after six decades of public health service, to be charged with unspecified crimes related to his management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Embracing a raft of right-wing conspiracies, the world’s richest man tweeted on Sunday that his “pronouns” are “Prosecute/Fauci.”

Fauci, 82, brushed off Musk’s tweets as the ravings of a very confused mogul.

“Prosecute me for what?” Fauci added. “I mean … I don’t know what he’s thinking about.”

Fauci called Musk’s outburst a sign of the dangerous politicization of public health and science, with doctors becoming lightning rods for harsh attacks and even legal or physical threats.

[ Musk booed amid Twitter meltdown ]

“Public health officials who are doing nothing more or less than trying to save people’s lives by promoting good health principles get attacked for reasons that seem inexplicable,” he said.

“To what end? It really just is a manifestation of how bizarre our society has gotten,” Fauci said.

Fauci has been a bogeyman for the far-right wing since he became the most recognizable figure in the fight against COVID nearly three years ago.

He mostly stood by the side of former President Donald Trump, a decision that earned him some criticism from the left. But Fauci is now blamed by the MAGA movement for a wide range of actions designed to limit the spread of the pandemic, including business closures, masking and vaccines.

The doctor who is credited with ending the AIDS crisis said he cannot understand extremists who are passing up live-saving vaccinations even as people continue to die around them.

“We have a vaccine that can save people’s lives and people are not using it for reasons that have nothing to do with good public health principles, but have to do with political ideology,” he said. “That is crazy.”

Fauci agreed to continue in his role under President Biden, but is leaving his government post at the end of the year. He says he won’t retire but hasn’t announced his future plans.