Wed 14 December 2022:

The White House condemned on Monday billionaire Elon Musk’s call for Anthony Fauci, a US infectious disease expert who is reviled by many on the right, to be prosecuted for his role in the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These are incredibly dangerous, these personal attacks that we are seeing,” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, in response to the weekend tweet by Musk that subsequently went viral.

“They are disgusting, and they are divorced from reality, and we will continue to call that out and be very clear about that,” Jean-Pierre said on Monday. She praised Fauci’s handling of public heath crises, including the coronavirus pandemic.

Musk over the weekend had tweeted: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.” As the tweet went viral, the CEO of Twitter and of electric car maker Tesla Inc replied to his own post, adding: “Truth resonates.”

Fauci has served as an adviser to seven U.S. presidents beginning with Republican Ronald Reagan and has had over 50 years of public service.

According to Fauci, he has received death threats. Trump and other conservatives criticized him for advocating measures like vaccination, social distancing, and masking to try to lessen the pandemic’s deadly effects.

Fauci, who said he planned to retire in December as President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser and top U.S. infectious disease official.

With over a million recorded COVID-19 deaths, the United States tops the world.