Some social media users share a clip of an interview with Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), on NBC’s Meet the Press. Some users, pointing to a shadow between his neck and the collar of his shirt, claim that this is evidence that the interview shows a disguised body double or some sort of mask rather than Fauci himself. This is false.
Examples of these posts can be seen here, here and here on Facebook. A comment on the claim reads: ‘This is clearly a mask, it is used in so many scientific films. This is the end of the artificial skin made over his neck or face ”. Other users suggest that it displays computer generated images (CGI): “it was clearly CGI deep fake” or Chinese artificial intelligence. A robot. ‘
The material in question comes from an interview with Chuck Todd from NBC on Meet the Press on February 28, 2021, youtu.be/fhHVORP687w?t=174, around time stamp 2:54 (see the alignment of the iPad and the coffee mug).
The shadow is indeed visible and can be seen moving throughout the entire video consistent with Fauci’s movements, which became 80 (here) last December. The fold is probably a simple effect of lightening and aging the skin over a tight shirt collar.
A similar, less pronounced shadow can be seen at different moments of Todd’s neck in the interview of more than ten minutes. 346.
Reuters footage of Fauci, of several occasions also showing the wrinkle on his neck, can be seen here, here, here.
Photos showing Fauci’s bare neck can be seen here, here and here, taken by photographer Frankie Alduino for the July 2020 issue of InStyle Magazine.
Reuters had earlier made a similar allegation about Joe Biden here.
VERDICT
Untrue. Footage of dr. Fauci, taken from an interview with NBC on February 28, 2021, does not show that a body is double in a mask nor was it made with CGI technology.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.