Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, said on Wednesday that he is advising President Joe Biden on new testing requirements for people entering the U.S. but said that people illegally crossing the U.S. Southern Border was “a different issue.”
“Dr. Fauci, as you advise the president about the possibility of new testing requirements for people coming into this country, does that include everybody?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked.
“The answer is yes,” Fauci responded. “Because you know that the new, the new regulation, if you want to call it that, is that anybody and everybody who’s coming into the country needs to get a test within 24 hours of getting on the plane to come here.”
“But what about people who don’t take a plane and just these border crossers coming in huge numbers?” Doocy pressed.
“That’s a different issue,” Fauci answered. “For example, when you talk, we still have Title 42 with regard to protection at the border. So there are protections at the border that you don’t have the capability as you know, of somebody getting on a plane getting checked, looking at a passport, we don’t have that there, but we can get some degree of mitigation.”
WATCH:
Doocy: “You advised the president about the possibility of new testing requirements for people coming in to this country, does that include everybody?”
Fauci: “The answer is yes.”
Doocy: “What about … these border crossers?”
Fauci: “That’s a different issue.” pic.twitter.com/maW3pD2tIu
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) December 1, 2021
Notable responses to Fauci’s remarks included:
- John Cooper, The Heritage Foundation: “What a fraud. Millions of illegal border crossers represent just as much of a public health threat — if not more so.”
- Tre Goins-Phillips, political commentator: “Only some people — namely, Americans returning home — can spread COVID, apparently.”
- Torunn Sinclair, NRCC: “It’s not a different issue. Democrats are just ignoring the issue like they’re ignoring the border crisis.”
- Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC): “It’s the same issue, and the political scientist here knows that.”
- Chad Gilmartin, GOP aide: “The difference is politics, not science!”
- Abigail Marone, GOP aide: “Dr. Fauci *IS* science!”
TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: Dr. Fauci, as you advise the president about the possibility of new testing requirements for people coming into this country, does that include everybody?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: The answer is yes. Because you know that the new, the new regulation, if you want to call it that, is that anybody and everybody who’s coming into the country needs to get a test within 24 hours of getting on the plane to come here.
REPORTER: But what about people who don’t take a plane and just these border crossers coming in huge numbers?
FAUCI: That’s a different issue. For example, when you talk, we still have Title 42 with regard to protection at the border. So there are protections at the border that you don’t have the capability as you know, of somebody getting on a plane getting checked, looking at a passport, we don’t have that there, but we can get some degree of mitigation.