Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, on Twitter Friday with a post that many critics mockingly suggested could be a parody.
Fauci has warned that Americans should “avoid travel and avoid congregate settings” over the holidays in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which is raging across the country and has killed more than 275,000 Americans.
Jordan’s response: “What will he cancel next? Saying Merry Christmas?”
Jordan’s effort to turn a piece of public health guidance into a salvo in the so-called “war on Christmas” stunned many.
Critics reminded Jordan that the daily case counts, hospitalizations and death toll associated with COVID-19 are all still rising. This past Wednesday alone, nearly as many Americans died of COVID-19 as died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Public health experts fear another dire surge in the figures after data suggested many people did not really abstain from traveling over Thanksgiving.
“It’s like a right-wing mad libs,” author John DeVore wrote of Jordan’s post.
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