Dr. Anthony Fauci was hospitalized earlier this month with West Nile virus for nearly a week before the 83-year-old continued his recovery at home, a spokesperson for the official shared.
The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) contracted the mosquito-borne illness but is expected to fully recover, a spokesperson told Fox News. The top COVID-19 official ran the NIAID for four decades and consulted both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s administrations during the pandemic before retiring in 2022.
“Tony Fauci has been hospitalized with a case of West Nile virus. He is now home and is recovering. A full recovery is expected,” the spokesperson said.
West Nile virus has become the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease since it first entered the U.S. in 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea and rashes, although roughly 80% of those who contract it will not experience any symptoms.
There are no vaccines or treatments for the virus, according to the CDC.
In 2020, Fauci became the public face of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which garnered widespread criticisms from Republican lawmakers for his opinions on the origin of COVID-19 as well as his imposition of mask and vaccine mandates and lockdown policies.
Fauci testified before the House Oversight Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic during a hearing in January where he admitted that the COVID-19 era restrictions were likely not based on data or science but rather “sort of just appeared.”
“After two days of testimony and 14 hours of questioning, many things became evident,” Republican Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement after the hearing. “During his interview today, Dr. Fauci claimed that the policies and mandates he promoted may unfortunately increase vaccine hesitancy for years to come. He testified that the lab leak hypothesis — which was often suppressed — was, in fact, not a conspiracy theory. Further, the social distancing recommendations forced on Americans ‘sort of just appeared’ and were not likely based on scientific data.”
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The former COVID-19 advisor repeatedly dismissed lab leak theories as conspiracy, despite the Biden administration reportedly shutting down a State Department inquiry in 2021 investigating the origins of the virus.
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