Let's fact check the latest crap being shoveled by the anti-vax Covid-denier crowd.
Claim: “Fauci declares that all unvaccinated citizens must be locked down this winter.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci did not say unvaccinated people should be ‘locked down’ this winter
https://www.politifact.com/factchec...hony-fauci-did-not-say-unvaccinated-people-s/
- Dr. Anthony Fauci stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has no power to declare a lockdown.
- He did not make any statement urging the Biden administration to implement a lockdown for unvaccinated Americans in 2023.
The emergence of new COVID-19 variants has fueled rumors on social media warning of the return of pandemic-era mandates around masking and closures. One claim said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has already declared such a move, particularly targeting unvaccinated people.
"Fauci declares that all unvaccinated citizens must be locked down this winter," read the screenshot in an
Aug. 24 Instagram post.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our
partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Fauci does not have the power to declare a lockdown; he stepped down as the agency’s director in
December 2022.
The headline in the screenshot was from an
Aug. 23 article published by The People’s Voice, which has
published misinformation before. Sean Adl-Tabatabai, the author of the article, has
experience running misinformation websites.
The article said Fauci "reemerged from retirement and urged the Biden administration to implement a ‘strict lockdown’ this winter for all unvaccinated Americans." It lifted paragraphs from an
Aug. 22 article by The Dossier, a Substack publication. The article cited an
interview with Fauci uploaded Aug. 15 by Wayne State University.
During the interview, which lasted around 40 minutes, Fauci discussed misinformation against vaccines and discussed the rationale for lockdowns, but he did not say unvaccinated people should be placed under a lockdown.
We rate this claim
False.