An NIH employee has reportedly been using a pseudonym to bash Fauci on a conservative website

Anthony Fauci.
(Image credit: KEVIN DIETSCH/AFP via Getty Images)

It turns out the prolific managing editor for the conservative website RedState, who has spent months bashing Dr. Anthony Fauci for his role in the U.S.'s coronavirus response, actually works for the same federal agency as the target of his criticism, The Daily Beast reports.

The Daily Beast discovered the writer, who uses the pseudonym "streiff" for his posts, is William Crews, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the same National Institutes of Health branch that is headed by Fauci. On RedState, Crews has described the pandemic as a "massive fraud" and baselessly accused his colleagues at the NIAID of contributing to a left-wing conspiracy to undermine President Trump and destroy the U.S. economy.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.