WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th March, 2021) US city mayors and other local government leaders must support their public health officials, many of whom had been scapegoated and threatened in irrational hostility during the coronavirus pandemic, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci said on Monday.
"I have never seen a situation that came close to this divisiveness over etiology that swept over into public health where public health officials are looked upon as the enemy not the real enemy [which was] the virus," Fauci told the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference.
Since the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, many public health officials in communities across the United States had been threatened and many of them had left their positions, Fauci told the conference.
"The president [Joe Biden] is well aware of this and is encouraging everyone to recognize this is a public fight. ... We really do need local leadership to endorse the things we say based on science and evidence," Fauci said.
City and community political leaders needed to get behind their local public health officials, Fauci added.
