futile as Tiresias is a reputable seer known to be favored by the gods. In his desperation, however, Oedipus lashes out with personal attacks, claiming that Tiresias is senile, a charlatan, and motivated by greed. This scene resonates powerfully with certain dynamics in our current pandemic, in which volatile language and scorn has often been directed at venerable sources of knowledge. Consider, for example, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a man of unimpeachable qualification who served six presidential administrations with no regard for their party affiliation. As the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, he was appointed to the Trump administration's White House Coronavirus Task Force. His insights were sought after from the first inklings that COVID-19 would become a pandemic. Yet, when those who asked after his expertise found his advice inconvenient, he was subjected to extreme backlash and public slander. Dr. Fauci might be considered a modern-day Tiresias. The idea is especially compelling when you consider that Tiresias was a prophet of Apollo, the Greek god of medicine (among many other things). Just as the prophet carried the knowledge of Thebes’ pollution with him, Dr. Fauci foresaw the dangers of our plague. As early as 2017, he warned the Trump administration that America would likely face a “surprise infectious disease outbreak” (Sadeghi). As the pandemic took hold in 2019 and 2020, the then-administration was accused of downplaying the threat and incompetence. Dr. Fauci’s terrifying science-based projections, as well as his suggested mitigation strategies (everything from lockdowns to masking), soon drew their ire. He was accused of alarmism and of wanting to infringe on basic freedoms. The rhetoric soon took hold in public discourse and escalated to include slanderous attacks on his character. He was branded everything from a “fraud” to a “war criminal,” was subject to threats of violence, and his family endured abusive phone calls (Stolberg). Just like Tiresias, Dr. Fauci became the subject of counter-narrative conspiracy theories, including accusations that he was involved in the creation of the virus (a “fact” that was being covered up) and that he personally profited off the pandemic (Korecki and Owermohle). While the responsibility for the initial backlash against Dr. Fauci lies with former-president Trump (who looked to discredit facts inconvenient to his political interests), the more interesting analogue for Oedipus are those members of the American public who perpetuated and escalated the antagonism. The political stakes for the president were clear. Recalling the intimacy of the conversation in Sophocles’ play, however, the stakes seem more acutely psychological than explicitly political. What was in it for those who, in the privacy of their homes, railed against our modern-day Tiresias? Oedipus did not want to consider his personal culpability for the plague as punishment for his killing his father and marrying his mother. What was so personally threatening about scientific knowledge that some members of the public would choose to defame and vilify the source? 48
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