A video is being shared on social media with a claim that noted immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the US President and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has been sacked.
The post also claims that the United States has now admitted that coronavirus is a man-made virus.
“Dr Faucci sacked. US admits virus is man made. Dr Fauci becomes the first wicket to fall in usa administration. Though slightly late. COVID 19 WATCH THE VIDEO,” the viral post read.
Here’s the link to the above post.
More posts can be seen here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the post and found the claim to be misleading and false.
We checked both the claims made in the viral video and found the following:
What’s in the video?
We found that the video the viral clip has been taken from a press conference held by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and other lawmakers to discuss removing Dr Anthony Fauci as Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The press conference was streamed live on YouTube on June 15, 2021.
The viral clip can be seen at 11:30 min into the above video.
In the press conference, the congresswoman can be heard discussing Fire Fauci Act (bill), which would reduce Anthony Fauci’s government salary to zero and require the Senate to confirm someone to fill his position.
“Dr Fauci was not elected by the American people. He was not chosen to guide our economy. He was not chosen to rule over parents and their children’s education…But yet Dr Fauci very much controlled our lives for the past year,” Marjorie Taylor Greene said.
However, the bill has not been passed yet.
Claim 1: Dr Fauci, the Chief Medical Advisor to the US President, has been sacked
While looking for media reports on the same, we found an AFP report published by NDTV where it was mentioned that ‘the bill is not expected to receive a floor vote in the Democratically-controlled House’.
Moreover, we found that in a press briefing held on June 4, 2021, President Biden expressed his confidence in Dr Fauci. “Yes, I’m very confident in Dr Fauci,” he said when asked if he still had confidence in Dr Fauci.
Moreover, the website of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases still lists him as Director.
Claim 2: US admitted that COVID-19 is man-made
We ran a Google search and found a report by The Print dated May 27, 2021, stating that ‘President Joe Biden said he ordered the U.S. intelligence community to “redouble” its effort to determine where the coronavirus came from, after conflicting assessments of whether its origins are natural or a lab accident’.
The transcript of the press briefing that happened on May 26, 2021, can be seen here.
In its report dated June 19, 2019, ANI mentioned that ‘US top coronavirus advisor Dr Anthony Fauci said that he is open to the theory that COVID-19 could be a lab-invented illness as acknowledged by scientists in February 2020′.
However, till now, no official statement has been released by the US administration confirming that COVID-19 is a man-made illness.
Hence, from the above information, it is clear that the claims mentioned in the viral posts are false and misleading.
If you want to fact-check any story, WhatsApp it now on +91 11 7127 9799
Error: Contact form not found.
Click here for Latest News updates and viral videos on our AI-powered smart news