Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
NIH Staffer Unmasked As Online Peddler Of COVID Misinformation; Will Retire
The Daily Beast: A Notorious COVID Troll Actually Works for Dr. Fauci’s Agency
The managing editor of the prominent conservative website RedState has spent months trashing U.S. officials tasked with combating COVID-19, dubbing White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci a “mask nazi,” and intimating that government officials responsible for the pandemic response should be executed. But that writer, who goes by the pseudonym “streiff,” isn’t just another political blogger. The Daily Beast has discovered that he actually works in the public affairs shop of the very agency that Fauci leads. (Markay, 9/21)
NBC News: Fauci Staffer To Retire After Report He Trashed 'Mask Nazi' Fauci And Coronavirus 'Fraud' Online
A public relations staffer for the agency run by Dr. Anthony Fauci announced his "intention to retire" Monday, the department said, after the Daily Beast reported that he was the author of numerous articles trashing Fauci and dismissing the coronavirus pandemic as a "massive fraud." The man, William B. Crews, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, was identified by the Daily Beast as moonlighting as managing editor of the conservative website RedState, where he wrote articles under the pseudonym "streiff." (Gregorian, 9/21)
USA Today: NIH Staffer Who Called COVID-19 'Massive Fraud' Outed, Will Retire
Many of his posts alluded to coordinated schemes by public health officials to damage Trump politically. "Streiff" wrote that the "Trump administration were failed at every turn by" Fauci. The Daily Beast reported the posts became increasingly conspiratorial as the pandemic continued. One posted to RedState in March was entitled: “When Covid-19 Kills 18,000 People Call Me, But Until Then Stop the Scaremongering.” (Behrmann, 9/21)
The Washington Post: NIH Staffer To Retire After He Was Exposed As The Blogger Behind Anti-Fauci, Anti-Mask Stories
Other articles by “streiff” include one calling the Democratic governor of Nevada a “mask-fetishist” after President Trump announced he would hold an indoor rally in defiance of state covid-19 restrictions; another asking of Fauci “Is he a partisan hack or is he actually an idiot?"; and another accusing Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert R. Redfield of “trying to shut down the US economy for partisan political gain and institutional aggrandizement of power and resources.” (Bernstein, Izadi and Barr, 9/21)
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CNN: The Country's 'Divisive State' Is Hurting Covid-19 Response, Fauci Says
One of the things that's getting in the way of clear and consistent messaging when it comes to Covid-19 in the US is the country's current divided state, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "We are in such a divisive state in society that it tends to get politicized," the country's leading infectious disease expert said Monday night on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah." "It's almost the one side versus the other," Fauci said. (Maxouris, 9/22)
