Aaron Rodgers’ issues with Dr. Anthony Fauci didn’t begin with the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. As revealed in resurfaced footage from March, the New York Jets quarterback suggested the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director helped engineer the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s with the backing of the federal government.
‘The blueprint, the game plan was made in the 80s,’ Rodgers said during a Zoom interview with the Look Into It podcast.
Fauci, who led the US response to coronavirus during the Trump and Biden administrations, previously faced the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. It was during that time that he was often criticized for the government response to the virus as more than 100,000 victims would die between 1981 and 1990.
‘Create a pandemic, with a virus that’s going wild,’ he continued. ‘Fauci was given over $350 million to research this, to come up with drugs, new or repurposed to handle the AIDS pandemic. And all they came up with was AZT,’ Rodgers continued.
‘And if you do even a smidge of research — and I know, I’m not an epidemiologist, I’m not a doctor, I’m not an immunologist, whatever – I can read, though. And I can learn and look things up just like any normal person. I can do my own research, which is so vilified, to even question authority.’
Aaron Rodgers, who plays for a team owned by a pharma giant, has regularly targeted Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced criticism for his response to the HIV crisis and the COVID-19 virus
Rodgers then tied Fauci’s past controversies with the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the government’s response to the coronavirus, which is blamed for more than a million American deaths.
‘But that was the game plan back then: create an environment where only one thing works. Back then, AZT. Now? Remdesivir,’ Rodgers continued, referencing an antiviral medication created in the wake of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
One of many AIDS protesters in the 1980s
Fauci did not invent, nor did he profit from the creation of Remdesivir, but the canard remains a talking point among his critics.
Rodgers also accused Fauci of having a ‘stake in the Moderna vaccine,’ although he did not cite any source for his information.
‘And we know Pfizer is one of the most criminally corrupt organizations ever,’ Rodgers continued. ‘The fine they paid was the biggest in the history of the DOJ [Department of Justice] in 2009. Like, what are we talking about? We’re going to put our full trust in science that can’t be questioned.’
There have been many false claims about Fauci with regards to his work fighting the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through 2022.
Many have claimed that the majority of AIDS patients died from medication developed when Fauci led the nation’s response to the emerging epidemic – and not from the virus itself.
However, an Associated Press fact check found this to be false.
While it’s true that Fauci had been a leading researcher when AIDS emerged in the 1980s, the claims that azidothymidine, commonly known as AZT, killed more people than the virus itself are baseless.
Members of ‘Act UP’ and others demonstrate around the White House protesting the lack of AIDS research funding by the President George H. W. Bush administration
Public health agencies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the World Health Organization, as well as prominent AIDS organizations and researchers, told The Associated Press the drug remains in use today as it’s been shown to be effective at keeping HIV in check when used in combination with other medications.
Many others have accused Fauci of profiting off the COVID-19 vaccine, but again, evidence is lacking.
A 2020 PolitiFact.com piece described one such claim, which originated on Facebook, as false.
Rodgers was recently under consideration to be third-party candidate and fellow COVID-19 vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate for the ongoing presidential race. Ultimately he was passed over for tech entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan.
Instead, the 40-year-old four-time MVP will go back to work for the Jets, a team owned by billionaire Johnson & Johnson heir, Woody Johnson.
