Fauci bails on White House Correspondents' dinner citing 'personal risk,' attends crowded pre-parties maskless anyway

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reportedly bailed on attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night, saying this was a result of an "individual assessment of my personal risk."

But Fauci still attended the crowed pre-parties, taking pics with notable media personalities. Fauci was photographed at the festivities, maskless with CNN host Don Lemon from various angles, some of which revealed masked event staff in the background.

The host of the event, comedian Trevor Noah called attention to Fauci’s absence during his opening monologue. "It is my great honor to be speaking tonight at the nation’s most distinguished super-spreader event."

Noah continued, "Do you read any of your own newspapers? You guys spent the last two years telling everyone the importance of wearing masks and avoiding large, indoor gatherings, then the second someone offers you a free dinner, you all turn into Joe Rogan."

Noah added, "Fauci thought it was too dangerous to come tonight. Pete Davidson thinks it’s OK, and we all went with Pete."

Earlier in the week, Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, told PBS that the US was "out of the pandemic phase." However, the very next day he walked back that comment and told the Associated Press, "by no means does that mean the pandemic is over."

Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, tweeted earlier in the week that the White House "has been walking a tightrope" when it comes to the virus. "They're trying to portray that we're in a much better place w/ COVID and the risk is low. But the virus is surging in a lot of places and we're nearing 1 million dead and they're trying to protect POTUS without having everyone at the WH mask."

Reiner also questioned why Biden would attend the WHCA dinner but Fauci avoiding it, tweeting, "Dr. Tony Fauci has decided not to attend this weekend's WHCA dinner because he's concerned that it could become a superspreader event. Why is the president still planning to attend?"

Biden had no problem attending the large event maskless and mentioned that a requirement of attending was that everyone had to be “vaccinated and boosted.”