GOP Senator Marco Rubio slammed Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday for misleading the American public on two issues central to the public health response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Dr. Fauci lied about masks in March," wrote Rubio on Sunday morning. He "has been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity," continued Rubio, who concluded that Fauci's behavior was an example of the "elite" who believe the American public needs to "be tricked into 'doing the right thing.'"

Earlier this weekend, Fauci appeared on CNN's "State of the Union," where he defended his statements in an appearance with Dana Bash, who asked the 80-year-old director of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Disease why he had not been "straight" with the American people regarding herd immunity.

"We have to be humble, and realize what we don't know — these are pure estimates," Fauci told Bash of his herd immunity predictions. He went on to say that the figures he originally cited were "pure extrapolations" based in part on polling surrounding the number of Americans who would be willing to take a coronavirus vaccine, and in part on the herd immunity figures associated with the spread of measles.