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Dr. Drew Praises Dr. Fauci, Notes One Thing He Finds Troubling

   DailyWire.com
Dr. Drew speaks onstage during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon

Dr. Drew Pinsky, a.k.a Dr. Drew, made headlines last week when he criticized the mainstream media for causing panic over the China-originated novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

In the viral exchange, the physician noted that the public should be listening to doctors, as opposed to journalists who, he argued, have no idea what they’re talking about. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was one of the health officials Dr. Drew specifically named as a competent leader on the issue.

During a livestream Sunday, the famed doctor again praised Dr. Fauci, noting that the two worked closely together on AIDS-related action. However, Dr. Drew said, he was troubled by Dr. Fauci neglecting to put the coronavirus stages into perspective, often needlessly triggering panic or sounding alarmist.

“I have worked with Dr. Fauci since the AIDS epidemic,” Dr. Drew explained on the livestream. “I used to bring him down to my residency of lectures. He has been my guiding light on infectious diseases ever since. I tell everybody, listen to what he tells you. He will tell you exactly what you need to do.”

“But, I’m now remembering, in middle of the AIDS epidemic, he started using rhetoric to panic to motivate,” Dr. Drew continued. “I forgot about this chapter until I started seeing him doing it today (Sunday).”

“It just concerns me, with the local people going over the top, that he, also, needs to be clear with his messages and not induce too much panic.”

Dr. Drew said Dr. Fauci, during a Monday press conference, “reiterated it’s gonna get worse — ‘It’s gonna get worse! It’s gonna get worse!’ — but he doesn’t say, ‘And we’re gonna get this thing.’ He just goes, ‘Things are gonna get really bad.’ He’s gotta also say, ‘And we’re on it. We make the changes we’re telling you to make, we’re gonna be fine.’ He never puts the disclaimer at the end.”

During the same livestream, Dr. Drew voiced his frustration with the lack of context surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that we’ve been through pandemics before and gotten through them just fine.

“The risk of dying of corona right now is .0000012% for a given individual,” Dr. Drew claimed, “and it’s probably less than that if you’re under 70.”

“The death rate in South Korea, if I’m remembering right, was .1% for under 60 — same as the flu,” he added. “Now, over 70, it was 8.5%. So, this is a nefarious virus, which is why we’re taking it so seriously.”

The doctor also highlighted that the H1N1 flu, our last pandemic in 2009, “primarily killed 40-60-year-olds. That was the risk group: 40-60. Again, no one knows that; it killed 500,000 people and infected 1 billion, 1 billion, with a ‘b’!”

As noted by The Daily Wire last week, Dr. Drew hit the mainstream media for creating business-destroying public panic over COVID-19.

“What I have a problem with is the panic and the fact that businesses are getting destroyed, that people’s lives are being upended, not by the virus, but by the panic,” the physician said. “The panic must stop. And the press, they really somehow need to be held accountable because they are hurting people.”

Click here to WATCH (relevant comments begin at the 5-minute mark).

Related: Dr. Drew On Coronavirus: Media ‘Hurting People,’ ‘Need To Be Held Accountable’ For Causing Panic

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