Anthony Fauci not charged with negligent homicide in New Zealand
Anthony Fauci not charged with negligent homicide in New Zealand
Former White House coronavirus advisor Anthony Fauci has not been charged with negligent homicide in New Zealand, the country's police told AFP, dismissing rumours circulating online. False posts further allege Fauci is facing arrest warrants in 14 other nations, but his name did not appear on Interpol's list of wanted persons as of May 6,
2025 .
"BOOM!!! GLOBAL HUNT LAUNCHED: NEW ZEALAND CHARGES FAUCI WITH 107,357 COUNTS OF NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE," reads an April 21 Facebook post from a New Zealand-based user.
Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken May 6, 2025
The post goes on to say 14 nations "have issued international arrest warrants" for Fauci, including Brazil, South Africa, Italy, Hungary and the Philippines.
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"He's now viewed as the mastermind of medical tyranny. His fingerprints are on lockdowns, forced injections, censorship, and mass psychological warfare. Now, he's facing the fire."
The same claim proliferated across social media in Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia in early April 2025. Many posts circulated among users in the United States.
Fauci, an American immunologist who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases between 1984 and 2022, came to wider attention at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was appointed to the White House coronavirus task force during the first term of US President Donald Trump (archived link).
After Joe Biden took office in January 2021, Fauci was appointed as his chief medical advisor before stepping down in 2022 (archived link).
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He advocated measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing to prevent the spread of Covid-19, making him a target of misinformation and harassment (archived link).
Contrary to the viral Facebook posts, Fauci has not been charged in New Zealand, nor have any of the countries mentioned issued international arrest warrants for him.
'Obviously not correct'
A keyword search found the claim appears to have originated from an article published April 6, 2025 on the conspiratorial website AMG-News, which has previously promoted misinformation.
However, the article does not cite any sources from New Zealand or the other countries mentioned in the social media posts.
Screenshot of the false AMG-News report taken May 6, 2025
A New Zealand Police spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that Fauci was not under investigation or charged with any crime in the country.
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"It is very obviously not correct," she said in an April 29, 2025 email.
Fauci's name does not appear on the regularly updated Red Notice list from Interpol, which organises police cooperation between 196 member countries (archived link).
AFP also found no mention of Fauci's indictment through advanced searches on the websites of the justice and police ministries for Brazil, South Africa, Italy, Hungary and the Philippines.
Misinformation target
AFP contacted Fauci and the press office at Georgetown University, where he works as a professor, for comment (archived link). A response was not forthcoming.
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Shortly after the false claim of an alleged indictment spread online, Fauci appeared in public in the United States on April 8 and 14 (archived links here and here).
Since the beginning of his active involvement in the Covid-19 pandemic, he has faced numerous political attacks and calls for investigation from Republican officials.
Hours before the end of his term, outgoing president Biden granted Fauci a pre-emptive pardon to shield him from "politically motivated prosecutions" (archived link).
AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about Fauci here and here.
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