Confidence in Dr. Fauci has decreased 42.2 percent among Americans in past year: poll

Confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci has decreased 42.2 percent among Americans in the past year, according to a poll done by Trafalgar Group.

Respondents were asked, “Has your confidence in Dr. Fauci gone up or down in the past year?” 42.2 percent of all respondents said their confidence had gone down, 22.1 percent said it had increased, and 26.1 percent said it is unchanged.

When the question was asked of only Republicans, 50.8 percent said their confidence in Fauci had decreased. Among those with no party affiliation, it had decreased by 41.7 percent. For Democrats, 20 percent said their confidence in Fauci decreased.

A KFF Tracking Poll found that 68 percent of Americans trusted Fauci to give reliable information about the coronavirus in September 2020. Back in April of 2020, the same Tracking Poll found that 78 percent of American’s trusted Fauci.

Fauci received criticism Tuesday for admitting he wore masks after being fully vaccinated for show, and not based on scientific evidence that it was necessary.

“Before the CDC made the recommendation change, I didn’t want to look like I was giving mixed signals. But being a fully vaccinated person, the chances of my getting infected in an indoor setting is extremely low,” Fauci explained to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

The statement came after Fauci insisted that wearing a mask post-vaccination was medically necessary and not an act of “political theater,” as Sen. Rand Paul suggested.

Fauci also contradicted his own public health advice in February 2020, when he advised Americans not to purchase or wear masks. “If you look at the masks that you buy in a drug store, the leakage around that doesn’t really do much to protect you. People start saying, ‘Should I start wearing a mask?’ Now, in the United States, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask,” he said.

Fauci later admitted that his statement on mask-wearing was not medically sound but rather part of the government’s strategy to combat mask shortages at the time.