Embattled NFL star Aaron Rodgers went after Dr. Anthony Fauci and falsely accused the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of being responsible for engineering the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s.
Rodgers controversially opted not to get vaccinated against COVID-19, publicly rejected NFL pandemic safety measures, and disseminated disinformation about the virus.
On a March episode of the Look Into It with Eddie Bravo podcast, Rodgers suggested that the federal government and Fauci collaborated on unleashing HIV/AIDS upon the world.
The New York Jets quarterback said:
"Create a pandemic, you know, with a virus that's going wild, right?"
He continued to claim without evidence:
"The blueprint, the game plan, was made in the '80s. Create a pandemic with a virus that’s going wild,"
"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 AZ—was AZT."
While we don't know where Rodgers got his information from, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that HIV infection in humans came from "a type of chimpanzee in Central Africa."
Studies showed that HIV "may have jumped from chimpanzees to humans as far back as the late 1800s."
You can hear Rodgers' wild claim here.
He continued to admit he was no expert on the subject but said he was determined to "look things up" without citing any sources.
"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 the f'k...I can read, though," he said.
"And I can learn and look things up just like any normal person, you know."
"I can do my own research, which is so vilified, to even question authority."
Rodgers also suggested Fauci's handling of the HIV/AIDS epidemic paved the way for the US government's poor response to COVID-19.
He added:
"But that was the game plan back then. Create an environment where only one thing works. Back then AZT; now, Remdesivir until we get a vaccine."
Remdesivir is a broad-spectrum antiviral medication that prevents the virus that causes Covid-19 from growing in the body.
"By the way, we know Fauci had [a] stake in the Moderna vaccine and we know Pfizer is one of the most criminally corrupt ever, the fine they paid was the biggest in the history of the [Department of Justice] in 2009," he said.
"What are we talking about? We’re going to put our full trust in science that can’t be questioned?"
Fauci's alleged link to Moderna has not been substantiated.
Interestingly, the fake theory was also shared by Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who considered Rodgers to be his VP.
Social media users face-palmed at Rodgers' uninfomed rant.
@keithedwards Just because he is good at football doesn't mean that he is also an expert in virology...— (@)
@highbrow_nobrow @keithedwards "I can do my own research." \n\nIn fewer than 90 seconds he was wrong about:\n1) timing of the first AIDS cases (actually decades before the 80s)\n2) the most prominent HIV researchers (in the states, Robert Gallo) \n3) the treatments for HIV/AIDS (Google "triple drug cocktail")— (@)
@highbrow_nobrow @keithedwards @AaronRodgers12 - You falsely suggesting that Dr. Fauci & the Government \u201cCreated HIV\u201d Is so far off the mark, but what is clear, is that as a Football player in the NFL, you might have been hit in the head far too many times. You haven\u2019t the first clue about being a Doctor of\u2026— (@)
One user referenced Rodgers' use of the livestock dewormer drug Ivermectin for COVID-19, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never authorized for treating or preventing COVID-19.
People were not buying what he was selling.
This is just another in a list of bizarro conspiracy theories we've come to expect from Rodgers.
@PreetBharara/X
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AMC