How the mighty have fallen. According to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Thursday, a majority of registered voters, by 52 percent, believe that Dr. Anthony Fauci should resign, while 48 percent believe he should not. This latest poll saw an increase in overall voters, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who want the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to resign from when the question was asked in June. At that time, 42 percent answered Fauci should resign.
Broken down by political party, 32 percent of Democrats think Fauci should resign, which is up 12 points from June. The 75 percent of Republicans who believe Fauci should resign is up 9 points, as is the 47 percent of Independents who do.
The poll was conducted October 26-27 with 937 registered voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Fauci has been increasingly in the news, and for reasons that do not exactly help his image. As we've covered throughout this month, the NIAID used $1.68 million to experiment on dogs, removing their vocal cords before doing so. A bipartisan letter from House members recently asked Fauci to respond to their questions about the experiments by November 19. As Katie reported yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter from his chamber.
Sen. Paul, who is also a medical doctor, has had some noteworthy exchanges with Dr. Fauci when the latter has testified before Congress. The senator has repeatedly been vindicated in the various lies he's caught Fauci in.
Also earlier this month it was revealed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that gain of function research was funded, despite Fauci adamantly claiming otherwise.
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This is not the only poll to show a drop in trust and support for Dr. Fauci that has been covered.
In May, a poll from the Trafalgar Group showed that 42.2 percent of general election likely voters said their confidence in Fauci had decreased over the past year. A plurality, at 30.1 percent, said it had "decreased significantly."
Fauci's boss, Dr. Francis Collins, announced earlier this month that he will be resigning as head of the NIH by the end of this year.
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