New York Times' 'Fauci Awards' draw social media ridicule: 'Embarrassing'

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Celebrities and Democrats alike gush over Dr. Anthony Fauci

FOX News contributor Raymond Arroyo joins Laura Ingraham for another edition of 'Friday Follies'

The New York Times opinion page reposted a satirical 2020 "Fauci Awards" ceremony to its Twitter page ahead of the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday, showing to some critics that the press has not lost its fervor for the public health official.

The Fauci Awards, the Times explains in the video, is a ceremony named for infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, to celebrate the country's public health officials and insist Americans show them respect. The left-leaning opinion section originally posted the satire in November and reposted it ahead of the Oscars.

Among the award recipients were Dr. Mark Wallace in Weld County, Colorado, for pressuirng the county to close a meatpacking plant for fear of a COVID outbreak.

"This rural community is lucky to have Dr. Wallace's leadership," the narrator says.

The video then lauds Dr. Nichole Quick, the recipient of their Outstanding Commitment to Science and Data Fauci award, for mandating masks in public spaces in Orange County, CA. It's a move "that any reasonable public health officer would do," they argue. But, like several other health officials before her, Quick resigned following a round of backlash against her strict proposals.

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"Sometimes the right decision isn't the popular one," The Times says. "That's why it takes guts to be a public health officer."

Th narrator goes on to lecture viewers about the need to listen to and trust health officials.

"Over 250,000 Americans have died," the editors say, a number which has more than doubled since then. "This is what happens when we don't listen to our scientists ... our public health officials deserve our trust."

Yet, critics have noted it's become harder to implicitly trust officials like Fauci who have given mixed messaging on public health guidelines throughout the pandemic.

His critics have tallied the number of times he's seemed to flip flop on COVID-19 guidance, including in his recent interview on ABC News' "This Week," when he said it's "common sense" that the risk of spreading COVID outdoors is "miniscule" as he teased upcoming guidance from the CDC on that matter. Earlier this month, Fauci told MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan even if someone is vaccinated, it's still "not OK" to eat and drink indoors.

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"The American people are tired and deserve better leadership," former Trump White House official Mercedes Schlapp tweeted on Monday.

Ciritcs also pointed out the "Fauci Awards" tweet did not get much love, garnering just about a dozen retweets for a day after it was posted.

"I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing: that the libs made an actual golden idol of Fauci or that it’s been up for a day and only has 13 retweets," Michael Knowles observed.

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"I'm embarrassed for the Times here," Townhall.com columnist Derek Hunter concurred.

"Canonizing someone who hasn't even completed the task they are being canonized [for] is extremely creepy," tweeted Tablet's Noam Blum.

The same day the Times re-upped its November piece, liberal Times columnist Frank Bruni penned a column headlined, "So Anthony Fauci Isn’t Perfect. He’s Closer Than Most of Us."