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Fauci mocked ‘ass-backwards’ diners for taking off masks at table: book

Dr. Anthony Fauci crassly mocked “ass-backwards” restaurant patrons who removed their coronavirus masks when seated — and laughed at the absurdity of his own idea for anti-COVID-19 goggles, according to a new book.

The inside account is included by former White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern in “Vignettes & Vino” — out Oct. 25 — which calls Fauci “awful” and an “egomaniac.”

“[I]n January 2020, [Fauci] said the virus was nothing to worry about for the American people. Then in the months that followed, he said that people should not wear masks and that they were ineffective. By June or July, he had changed his tune and said everyone should be very concerned and that they should wear multiple masks and goggles,” Morgenstern wrote.

“I vividly recall my blood boiling during an infuriating meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, when Fauci laughed about his own goggles comment, making it clear how cynical he was and that he could get people to believe anything,” the former aide continued.

“He went on to laugh about how ‘ass-backwards’ it was that people entered a restaurant wearing a mask,  then sat down and conversed with people without a mask. Of course, he wasn’t saying things to that effect publicly, just laughing privately at the American rubes he was fooling.”

Fauci has long been an advocate for Americans masking up when indoors.
Dr. Fauci mocked diners who did not wear masks. Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

The practice of wearing masks into businesses but not while eating or drinking was mandated by local orders across the US in mid-2020. Indoor tables generally were spaced apart to allow for social distancing between parties.

Around the time of the Roosevelt Room meeting, Fauci urged restaurant-goers to wear masks while seated — recommending masking while awaiting your waiter in a Comedy Central interview — but his colorful derision of people who obeyed mask rules but without sufficient zeal is new.

Although he allegedly laughed about his own goggles remark, Fauci offered a more serious impression when he made the recommendation to ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.

“If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it,” Fauci told Ashton in July 2020.

Asked if eye protection would be formally recommended, Fauci said, “It might, if you really want perfect protection of the mucosal surfaces.”

Fauci, 81, will retire in December after 38 years as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Although widely respected among Democrats as a public health icon, Fauci is widely distrusted by Republicans and allies of former President Donald Trump.

He has served in his role for decades.
Fauci, 81, will be retiring at the end of President Biden’s term. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Fauci faced accusations of hypocrisy in July 2020 when he sat maskless between a friend and his wife inside Nationals Park stadium after throwing an opening pitch — arguably flouting DC’s outdoor mask mandate.

And in a series of Senate hearings, he’s clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over US funding for “gain of function” research at the Wuhan, China, lab where the US intelligence community says the coronavirus pandemic may have started.

Morgenstern co-authored the forthcoming book with his wife Teresa Morgenstern, a press official for Operation Warp Speed, which spearheaded the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines.

The book pairs anecdotes from the Trump era with food and drink recipes. The Fauci chapter is paired with recipes for “Opening-Day Burgers” paired with beer.