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Reuters
Dr. Fauci: “It only reflects negatively on them”
American infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci described recent efforts by the Trump administration to discredit him as “bizarre” and “meaningless.”
“Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Dr. Fauci said in an interview with The Atlantic. “It does nothing but reflect badly on them.”
On Sunday, a White House official shared a list detailing Dr. Fauci’s apparent erroneous comments.
But on Wednesday, Trump insisted that he had a “good relationship” with him.
“We are all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci,” he said. “We want to get rid of this disaster that China sent us, so everyone is working on the same line and we are doing very well.”
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The White House statement that attacked Dr. Fauci criticized him for what he said was conflicting advice on facial covers and comments on the severity of Covid-19.
Responding to criticism, Dr. Fauci told The Atlantic that attacking him was “completely wrong.”
“I can’t understand in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that,” he said.
“I think now they realize that that was not prudent, because it is only negatively reflected in them,” he added.
Anthony Fauci is not angry. He’s just … disappointed.
The top government expert on infectious diseases took the lead in his first public comments after White House officials, both on and off the registry, questioned his professional judgment and handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Fauci acknowledges that the advice and analysis he has provided has changed over time, but he insists that his recommendations have always been based on the latest science.
Those views have sometimes led to clashes with the president, who has tried to change the focus to rebuild a US economy that has been devastated by the pandemic. Dr Fauci has said that controlling the spread of the virus should be the top priority, and recent reopening steps have delayed those efforts.
Such forceful talk has helped make Dr. Fauci a popular figure during the pandemic, and that may only be behind some of the resentments that are burning in the White House.
However, the beatings on Dr. Fauci seem destined to backfire. With a general election just a few months away, the Trump campaign needs a consistent public message, and an administration that attacks its own and then distances itself from those attacks can only promote a message of chaos and confusion.
Dr. Fauci was also criticized by Peter Navarro, Trump’s top business adviser, in an op-ed for USA Today in which he said the disease expert had been “wrong about everything I have interacted with him about.”
However, the White House distanced itself from Navarro’s comments, and communications chief Alyssa Farah tweeted that the article “did not go through the normal White House approval processes” and was “Peter’s opinion alone.”
When asked about Navarro’s article as he was leaving the White House for Atlanta, Trump said he shouldn’t have written it.
“Well, he made a statement on his own behalf. He shouldn’t be doing that,” he said.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Dr. Fauci said he was not planning to resign because of the attacks on him.
“I think the problem is too important for me to get into those kinds of thoughts and discussions. I just want to do my job. I’m really good at it. I think I can contribute. And I’m going to keep doing it,” he said.
He also told Reuters that he believes the United States will successfully develop a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
It follows the initial results of a vaccine developed by the firm Moderna, which Dr. Fauci said was promising because the vaccine seemed to offer the kind of protection seen in a natural infection.
Dr. Fauci’s comments come after reports that starting July 15, US hospitals will be required to report Covid-19 patient data to the Washington federal health agency instead of to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The CDC, the leading U.S. public health institute, has thus far been responsible for handling pandemic data from its network of hospitals.
Health experts have expressed concern that the data will become politicized, less transparent and possibly affect the work of researchers and modelers.
The United States has reported more than 3.4 million coronavirus cases and more than 136,000 deaths across the country, according to Johns Hopkins University.
