Matthew McConaughey interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci took 40 minutes on Instagram on Thursday with the rap-talking, Oscar-winning actor getting a chance to grill the nation’s top expert on infectious disease on COVID-19.
McConaughey quickly dismissed questions from the 79-year-old doctor about everything from how worried people should be about getting the virus by touching a doorknob (not so much as sharing close physical space with someone who is infected, says Fauci) to the question of whether Advil makes symptoms less (it does not).
“OK, true-false: sunlight kills the virus?” Frege McConaughey.
“It does,” Fauci replied, supporting a theory put forward by President Donald Trump. “That’s the truth.”
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What about letting everyone get infected so we all become immune and the disease disappears?
No way, Fauci said. This would cause major problems, especially in America, where obesity occurs and related conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are considered risk factors in how a person becomes ill.
“If everyone has the contract … a lot of people will die,” Fauci said.
PHOTO: Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, removes his Washington Nationals protective mask during a House Select Subcommittee for the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on July 31, 2020, in Washington, DC (Pool / Getty Images)
“The death toll would be enormous and completely unacceptable,” Fauci added. “And that’s why we’re saying, ‘Let it fly. Let everyone be infected and we’ll be fine.’ That’s a bad idea. “
Fauci also said Americans should choose between having a party this summer and opening schools in the fall: “Do you want to open the locks or do you want to open the schools?”
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McConaughey also asked Fauci if he had invested millions of dollars in a fax machine.
Fauci lake. “Matthew, no. I have zero! I’m a government worker. I have a government salary.”
McConaughey, known for his relaxed style and often photographed shirtless, wore a white-collared dress shirt and glasses for the interview instead. He philosophically turned on points, expressed his own personal disappointment and what he said was furious with the nation’s response to the pandemic.
PHOTO: Matthew McConaughey attends a premiere of Files on July 31, 2017, in New York. | Dr. Anthony Fauci will attend a gala on October 24, 2018, in New York. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images, FILE | Santiago Felipe / Getty Images, FILE)
“Like a lot of people, I’m more than disillusioned – actually quite furious – at how COVID is politicized,” including masks, McConaughey said.
People, he added, are “in search of identity and purpose in a great time of unknown. And man, so many people have become disillusioned with our leadership,” he said. “But even so many people have been furious [clung] to the fringes of right and left, which further divides a separation of unity. “
At the end of her discussion, McConaughey seemed to hear through Fauci’s suggestion that the nation could reunite because it did so in the past after World War II and 9/11.
“This is equivalent to that, Matthew. We absolutely must be together,” Fauci said.
“That’s it. … We can have our freedom and our party later. Let’s be together now,” McConaughey said.
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