Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci fired back on Friday after online critics—many from the right—blasted him over a viral photo showing him with his mask down at the Nationals opening day game. After botching the season’s first pitch, Fauci watched the rest of the game from the empty stands alongside his wife and a friend. “There’s a photo of you in the stands with two people, you are not wearing a mask and not social distancing, but we should point out that one of those people is your wife,” Fox News’ John Roberts asked on Friday morning. “What about the other person?”

Fauci, meanwhile, noted the other person “is a very close friend” before slamming the attacks against him as “sort of mischievous,” noting he had briefly taken his mask down because he “was drinking water” at the time. Adding that he had also tested negative for COVID-19 the day before, Fauci once again dismissed the criticism. “So I guess if people want to make a thing of that, I wear a mask all the time when I’m outside,” he concluded. “To pull it down, to take some sips of water, and put it back up again, I guess if people want to make something about that, they can. But to me, I think that’s just mischievous.”