Fauci says he is polarizing because he supports 'science, data, and hard facts' and not conspiracy theories

• Dr. Anthony Fauci has advised the White House on COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
• He told Fox News' Chris Wallace he has become a polarizing figure because he stands with science.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said he's become a polarizing figure during the pandemic because he stands with "science, data, and hard facts" instead of conspiracy theories.

"I have stood for always making science, data, and evidence, be what we guide ourselves by," Fauci said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "And I think people who feel differently, who have conspiracy theories, who deny reality, that's looking them straight in the eye."

Wallace told Fauci that at the start of the pandemic he was seen as an "authority on infectious disease" but that he became a "polarizing figure" over time, with critics accusing him of "sending mixed messages."

Fauci said he stood by the truth and that that's "inconvenient" for people who believe in conspiracy theories.

"Those are people that don't particularly care for me, and that's understandable because what I do, and I try very hard, is to be guided by the truth," he said. "And sometimes the truth becomes inconvenient for some people, so they react against me."

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is considered the nation's top infectious disease expert. He has been a central part of the country's COVID-19 response, serving on former President Donald Trump's task force and now as the Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden.

When asked by Wallace if anything he has done has contributed to him becoming a polarizing figure, Fauci said he couldn't answer because he couldn't think of anything.

Fauci disagreed with Trump on multiple occasions regarding the response to the pandemic, with members of the Trump administration attempting to discredit him.

Fauci has previously said he and his family have faced vitriol including death threats. In the summer of 2020, his entire family had to be assigned personal security after people, including far-right QAnon followers, made threats against him.