(The Defender) Dr. Anthony Fauci used Twitter to disseminate the government’s official COVID-19 and vaccine narratives, despite testifying under oath that he had never used the social media platform, according to the latest “Twitter files,” released by investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker.
Titled the “Fauci Pharma Files,” the documents also revealed that Twitter partnered with pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy chains to promote COVID-19 vaccines on the social media platform.
At a deposition in November 2022, as part of Missouri v. Biden, a lawsuit against the Biden administration, Fauci testified under oath that he had never used Twitter — a claim he has since repeated in the media.
The lawsuit, filed May 5, 2022, by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana and several medical experts, nonprofit groups and publications, alleges government officials colluded with and coerced social media platforms to “suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints and content” related to COVID-19.
In addition to Thacker’s revelations, which he posted Thursday on Substack, journalist Lee Fang — also on Thursday — revealed an April 13 letter from Rep. Stacey E. Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), ranking member of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, in which Plaskett threatened another “Twitter files” journalist — Matt Taibbi — alleging Taibbi had lied under oath during his recent testimony before the subcommittee.
Fauci ‘lies all the time’
During Fauci’s sworn deposition Nov. 23, 2022, the retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was asked if he ever had “any communications with anybody removing speech about the lab leak theory of the origins of the COVID from social media platforms.”
In his response, Fauci stated, “I don’t have an account. I don’t tweet. I don’t pay attention to social media. I wouldn’t know how to access a tweet if you paid me.”
Thacker noted that Fauci made similar claims several times during his seven-hour deposition.
In exclusive remarks shared with The Defender, Thacker said he first noticed the discrepancy between Fauci’s testimony and public pronouncements and his actual involvement on Twitter while reviewing internal monthly reports from Twitter.
One report showed that Fauci had taken over the White House’s official COVID-19 Twitter account on multiple occasions.
3) Fauci made similar claims, during multiple exchanges, in a 7-hour deposition, where he denied using Twitter or even knowing how to access a tweet. pic.twitter.com/SdWEp9dIYV
— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) April 20, 2023
In subsequent media appearances, Fauci again claimed he never used Twitter. This included a Jan. 13 appearance on Fox News, where he said:
“A lot of people are spouting out a lot of things about me and Twitter. I’ve never had a Twitter account. I don’t intend on having a Twitter account, and I’ve had nothing to do with Twitter. So, I don’t know what they’re talking about when they say that.”
During the same Fox News interview, Fauci responded to tweets by Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk.
In a Dec. 11, 2022, tweet, Musk said his “pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” and on Dec. 18, 2022, Musk tweeted “The tide is turning fast for the Faucists.
My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
On Dec. 12, 2022, Musk tweeted: “As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo” (in my opinion).
On Dec. 14, 2022, in response to a tweet by user @Hodgetwins: “You found messages between Twitter execs and our govt. (Fauci and team) pushing for censorship of anyone that didn’t go along with their narrative on COVID?,” Musk tweeted a trophy emoji.
In a Dec. 18 Twitter exchange between Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder and chairman on leave for Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy wrote: “Fauci purchased omertà [a code of silence] among virologists globally with a total of $37 billion in annual payoffs in research grants. With the paymaster gone, the orthodoxies will unravel.”
Musk responded with a one-word answer: “Precisely.”
Fauci purchased omertà among virologists globally with a total of $37 billion in annual payoffs in research grants. With the paymaster gone, the orthodoxies will unravel.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) December 18, 2022
And on Jan. 1, Musk tweeted that 2023 “won’t be boring,” and responded to author Juanita Broaddrick’s “waiting … for #FauciFiles” comment with: “Later this week.”
In response to these tweets, Fauci told Fox News:
“I have no idea what he’s talking about … I wish I did. I’m clueless about what he’s referring to.
“I just don’t understand what he’s doing. And I don’t think I should be addressing it because it’s a bit puzzling to me.”
However, according to Thacker, internal Twitter documents reveal that Fauci not only was familiar with Twitter, but he was actively involved in the dissemination of establishment narratives about COVID-19 vaccines.
An internal Twitter report from March 2021 stated that “Dr. Anthony Fauci did an account takeover for [the account] @WHCOVIDresponse.”
Thacker also revealed an April 2021 tweet by the @WHCOVIDresponse [White House COVID response] account stating that “Dr. Fauci will take over this account,” enabling the public to “Hear directly from our public health experts as they take to Twitter to answer questions about COVID-19 and the vaccines.”
Hear directly from our public health experts as they take to Twitter to answer questions about COVID-19 and the vaccines. Dr. Fauci will take over this account, joining @Surgeon_General, @NIHDirector, @DrNunezSmith46, and @CDCDirector to share answers. Reply with your questions. pic.twitter.com/4K0Mq3Hm0c
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) April 19, 2021
Thacker told The Defender that individuals he spoke to while investigating this story said that Fauci’s repeated denials of never having used Twitter or any other social media platform led them to expect him to claim that he doesn’t even have a computer.
According to Thacker, such statements are the norm — not the exception — for Fauci. He told The Defender:
“I think the guy just lies all the time. He lied about gain-of-function research … about funding this gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“I don’t know why he does this, but from people I’ve spoken to, I’ve been told this is just what he does: He lies.
“For most of his career, he’s been this very well-known scientist, but not on a global public stage where he’s being looked at from all directions. Now that he’s being looked at, people have begun to notice that he says things that don’t add up.”
Writing on Substack, Thacker quoted Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., a professor of medicine (on leave) from Harvard University, who is one of the plaintiffs in the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit. Kulldorff said Fauci is “involved even if he doesn’t write the tweets.”
“To me that’s explosive, and it seems he lied under oath,” added Kuldorff.
In statements delivered on Feb. 28 to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, Kulldorff characterized the set of public health responses to COVID-19 as the “worst public health mistakes in history.”
In his Substack post, Thacker referred to several other instances where Fauci may have lied. As Thacker wrote, there were other instances of Fauci “fibbing and flailing” during his November 2022 deposition:
“At one point, Fauci is asked if he knows Stanford professor John Ioannides, who is one of the most heavily cited and widely renowned physicians in the field of evidence-based medicine.
“Nonetheless, Fauci denied knowing Ioannides.”
John Ioannidis, M.D., D.Sc., (also spelled Ioannides) has been an outspoken critic of the public health measures implemented in response to COVID-19. As early as March 17, 2020, Ioannidis described this response as “a fiasco in the making.”
During his deposition, Fauci said “I’ve heard of him. I don’t know him. I’ve heard the name Ioannides, but I don’t know him.”
Thacker spoke to Ioannidis, who said that he previously worked with Fauci.
“I was a Medical Officer at the HIV Research Branch at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 2 years in 1996-1998,” Ioannidis told Thacker. “Tony Fauci was my director, so I would think he knows me pretty well.”
Thacker added that “emails released by Buzzfeed confirm that Fauci knows his former employee, Ioannidis.” In an April 18, 2020, email to Dr. Stephen Hahn, on which other public health officials, including Dr. Deborah Birx, were copied, Fauci wrote: “John Ioannides is the one most of us know … He is the person one of your people could reach out to.”
Hahn served as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) commissioner of food and drugs between Dec. 17, 2019, and Jan. 20, 2021.
In another example highlighted by Thacker, Fauci was asked “multiple questions” during his deposition “about a 2020 study that Nature Medicine published and that downplayed the possibility that the pandemic started from a lab in Wuhan,” a study which, according to Thacker, Fauci “helped orchestrate.”
During his deposition and on other occasions, Fauci said he remembered “reading” the Nature paper. According to Thacker though, Fauci, “no longer under oath,” told The New York Times in late March that he was not sure if he ever got around to reading the paper.
Despite these examples, Fauci continues to enjoy the unwavering support of many loyal “supporters,” according to Thacker, who do not question any of Fauci’s actions or statements.
“These supporters fawn over him and don’t care if he tells the truth, no matter what he does … He could walk through the quad of any major research university and shoot someone and no one would care,” Thacker said.
Thacker’s revelations about Fauci are likely to have implications for the ongoing Missouri v. Biden lawsuit. Writing on Substack, Thacker stated:
“Because they remain in litigation, the state of Louisiana did not return a request for comment, but several people involved in the lawsuit explained that Fauci’s takeover of the White House Twitter account adds further evidence that he did not tell the truth under oath.
“In a statement of fact that the states filed in court, they write that Fauci’s testimony ‘contradicts the documentary evidence, including his own contemporaneous emails, on approximately 37 points’ … This would be point 38, I was told.”
The Louisiana Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request from The Defender for comment.
Thacker told The Defender, “There’s more stories coming … I have a lot more documents to go through,” adding that many journalists who ignored the “Twitter files” or have been “attacking the reporters” who have released these documents “were the favored reporters of Twitter, and there’s emails on that.”
Fauci ‘beloved by Twitter 1.0’
As part of Thursday’s “Twitter files” release, Thacker stated that “Fauci was beloved by Twitter 1.0,” referring to Twitter prior to its purchase by Musk.
Previously, on Dec. 28, 2022, Musk revealed that a “Fauci Fan Club” existed on one of Twitter’s internal Slack communication channels.
Twitter’s then-support for Fauci did not stop there though, according to Thacker. In a Feb. 28, 2021, email Twitter attorney Angela Sherrer heaped praise upon Fauci, describing him as “the leading trusted voice about the COVID-19 response in the United States.”
Thacker stated that Sherrer “was no small fry at Twitter.” Referencing testimony provided by San Francisco-based FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan in a Nov. 29, 2022, deposition as part of the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, Sherrer was one of the attorneys involved with combating alleged “disinformation.”
On Substack, Thacker referred to an online biography that “describes Sherrer as playing a key role in requests for content removal and enforcement of Twitter rules.”
Sherrer has since left Twitter, departing as Musk was completing his takeover of the platform.
Chan is one of the defendants named in the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit. Previous “Twitter files” releases showed that Chan actively communicated with Twitter and other social media platformsas part of efforts to police alleged “disinformation” and “misinformation.”
In his deposition, Chan testified that one of the Twitter attorneys he met with regarding such topics was Sherrer.
Twitter partnered with pharma, pharmacy chains while censoring criticism of them
Thursday’s “Twitter files” also revealed that Twitter partnered with Big Pharma and prominent pharmacy chains to “shape vaccine marketing campaigns.”
10) In December 2020, Twitter announced they would begin removing and labelling tweets that contained vaccine “misinformation” especially concerning COVID-19 vaccines. pic.twitter.com/jmZTca5CUJ
— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) April 20, 2023
