Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper he was appalled by a Conservative Political Action Conference crowd cheering about the number of Americans who have not received a Covid vaccine.
During a segment on Sunday’s “State of the Union,” Tapper played a clip of former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson talking about how the “government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90 percent of the population into getting vaccinated. And it — and it isn’t happening, right?”
Asked for his reaction, Fauci called it “horrifying.”
"I mean, they are cheering about someone saying that it's a good thing for people not to try and save their lives," Fauci said.
"I mean, if you just unpack that for a second, Jake, it's almost frightening to say, 'Hey, guess what, we don't want you to do something to save your life,'" the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director added.
"Everybody starts screaming and clapping. I just don't get that," he continued. "I don't think that anybody who is thinking clearly can get that. What is that all about? I don't understand that, Jake."
The comments come after the Biden administration said it will go door-to-door promoting the vaccine in an effort to get more Americans inoculated. In defending that plan, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra insisted it’s the government’s business to know an individual’s vaccination status.
“The federal government has spent trillions of dollars to try and keep Americans alive during this pandemic," he said. "So, it is absolutely the government's business, it is taxpayers' business, if we have to continue to spend money to try and keep people from contracting COVID."
Though Fauci has said the federal government is not mandating Americans get the jab, he also strongly advocates having more requirements at the local level.
"There really should be. We’re talking about life-and-death situation. We have lost 600,000 Americans already, and we’re still losing more people,” he said.
“There have been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So, I am in favor of that,” he added.