Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the Trump and Biden administrations’ COVID-19 response, is recovering from the West Nile virus after being hospitalized.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Nile is typically spread from infected mosquitos and can lead to fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea or rash. Most people who contract the virus, which has no vaccine or treatment, don’t experience any symptoms.
More than 1,800 people were hospitalized with the virus last year in the U.S., leading to 182 deaths, according to CDC data.
Mr. Fauci, who at 83 is on the faculty of Georgetown University in the District of Columbia, was hospitalized for six days before being sent home. He told CBS News that he likely was infected from a mosquito bite he received in his backyard.
He was the top infectious disease specialist in the country until he left his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022. Before his retirement, Mr. Fauci advised every president since President Ronald Reagan.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Fauci became a champion of vaccines and a lightning rod of anger for vaccine skeptics. That anger spread into politics and reared its head in June when he testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
During the hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, said Mr. Fauci wasn’t a doctor and demanded that her colleagues draft a criminal referral against him for crimes against humanity.
Mr. Fauci defended vaccine mandates during the hearing and argued that vaccines saved “hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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