Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that Republicans who want to lift COVID-19 restrictions but do not want to get vaccinated make “no sense.”
“It’s almost paradoxical that, on the one hand, they want to be relieved of the restrictions, but on the other hand, they don’t want to be vaccinated. It just makes almost no sense,” Fauci told CNN’s “State of the Union.” .
The director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases said he was frustrated by a poll that showed 43% of Republican Party voters still don’t want to receive the shot.
“It’s pretty frustrating because the fact that someone doesn’t want to get vaccinated, in this case from a disturbingly large proportion of Republicans, only works against where they want to be,” he said.
Fauci noted that many Republicans seem “very concerned” about public health restrictions.
“We share this concern, but the way to remove these restrictions is to vaccinate as many people as quickly and as quickly as possible, because when that happens … you will see the virus level in the community go up and down and to the point that you should not have these public health restrictions, ”he said.
The comments come after Fauci and Republican Party Representative Jim Jordan entered into several intensive exchanges about reopening during Congressional testimony last week.