Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top disease expert in the U.S., appeared to double down on recent comments he made that attacks on him are essentially attacks on science.

Axios, citing New York Times writer Kara Swisher’s podcast, "Sway," quoted Fauci defending his record on COVID-19.

"It is essential as a scientist that you evolve your opinion and your recommendations based on the data as it evolves…and that’s the reason why I say people who then criticize me about that are actually criticizing science," he said.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a recent interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that the recent criticism he faced is "quite frankly" attacks on science."

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"Because all of the things I have spoken about consistently, from the very beginning have been fundamentally based on science," he said. "Sometimes those things were inconvenient truths for people and there was pushback against me, so if you are trying to, you know, get at me as a public health official and a scientist, you’re really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you’re attacking science, and anybody that looks at what is going on clearly sees that."