The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director who said early on in the COVID-19 pandemic Americans did not need to worry about wearing masks because they wouldn't help will be featured alongside pro tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés, record executive Clive Davis, film director Ava DuVernay and Children’s Defense Fund president Marian Wright Edelman, all who will be part of the gallery's Portrait of a Nation Award (not a conservative or Trump supporter among them, by the way).
“These honorees are innovators in their respective disciplines and advocates for social causes who use their voices to care for and lift up others,” Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said in a statement, the Washington Examiner reported.
“The Portrait of a Nation Award reminds us that history is living and the choices people make have an impact on the nation’s legacy.”
Meet our 2022 Portrait of a Nation honorees! This fall we celebrate: José Andrés, Clive Davis, Ava DuVernay, Marian Wright Edelman, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams with the Portrait of a Nation Award. #PortraitOfaNation pic.twitter.com/PFAKDSxNqu
— National Portrait Gallery (@smithsoniannpg) January 26, 2022
Save the date to see the honorees’ portraits as part of “Recent Exhibitions” opening November 10. You can also follow along as we take you behind-the-scenes at the Portrait of a Nation fundraiser on November 12 when each honoree is presented with the Portrait of a Nation Award. pic.twitter.com/Z3F3tvjGnN
— National Portrait Gallery (@smithsoniannpg) January 26, 2022
“It is one of the most humbling of all of the recognition that I’ve gotten,” Fauci said of the award, according to The Washington Post.
“I’ve lived in Washington the last 50 years and the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery is an iconic place in my mind. It makes me feel humbled and almost embarrassed to be in the same building with the people whose portraits are there," he continued.
“When I go and look at the portraits of Obama and Roosevelt and all the presidents, clearly the artist is trying to express elements of the person’s character, the person’s stress and strain, the person’s accomplishments,” Fauci added. “You get a feel for the person, and that I can appreciate.”
“I am one of many, many scientists in the federal government. I just have been, by a series of circumstances, put in a position where I’m well-recognized,” he said. “People are going to say, ‘What’s a government worker doing with those people?’ In some respects, it creates a little more awareness and respect for people who are in government service.”
This is the same Fauci who told Americans not to wear masks before flip-flopping about a dozen times, at one point recommending multiple masks.
“When it comes to preventing coronavirus, public health officials have been clear: Healthy people do not need to wear a face mask to protect themselves from COVID-19,” CBS News reported March 8, 2020, concerning the Fauci interview.
“There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” he told 60 Minutes.
“While masks may block some droplets, Fauci said, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do,” CBS News reported at the time. “Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands.”
Meanwhile, Fox News reported in recent days that Fauci knew early on that the virus that causes COVID-19 was not a 'natural occurrence' and was developed in a lab -- which he helped fund, by the way:
According to the timeline of events laid out by Baier, Fauci was told on January 27, 2020 that his NIAID had been indirectly funding the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth-- a US-based scientific non-profit that had been working with novel coronaviruses.
On January 31, Dr. Kristian Andersen, a noted virologist at the Scripps Lab, privately told Fauci that after discussion with his colleagues some of COVID-19’s features look possibly engineered and the "genome is inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory."
Hours later, Fauci hastily organized a call with dozens of worldwide virologists, and notes from the meeting obtained by Special Report reveal that suspicions of the lab leak theory were suppressed over concerns of how the public would react to news of possible Chinese government involvement.
COVID-19 has killed millions of people, but our Smithsonian wants to celebrate and recognize one of the people responsible for it.
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