WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested in a new interview that he is trying to walk a fine line in his public message to inform the public about the coronavirus but avoid contradicting President Donald Trump.
In an interview with New York Times opinion columnist Jennifer Senior, the country’s leading infectious disease expert said “it is not helpful” for him to say something directly contrary to what the president is doing because “[t]Suddenly, you haven’t heard from me in a while.
“I’m trying to do my best to get the message across without openly disagreeing, okay?” Fauci said Tuesday.
“The only thing I can do is go out with whatever notoriety or recognition I have and say, these are the four or five things. Please pay attention to them. And if we do that, I am sure we will change this, “he added.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it would be better if the response to the pandemic was “a little more uniform” in the United States, which means, “he said,” the fundamentals. Wear a mask. Avoid the crowds. Close the bars. Bars are hot spots. “
During the interview, which was conducted prior to the press conference on Trump’s coronavirus on Tuesday, Fauci said he did not know if he was expected to attend.
When asked if he had spoken to the White House about it, he said, “No. But that’s no different from them all of a sudden, in the middle of the day, to say, ‘Be there at 5 o’clock.’ I am, what is the correct word? – surprised that you still haven’t heard anything. “
Finally he was absent from the briefing.
Trump offered a sober assessment of the pandemic during the briefing, saying, “Probably, unfortunately, it will get worse before it gets better,” but he also defended his claim that, contrary to all evidence, the coronavirus “would just go away.”
The president also focused on masks, encouraging Americans who couldn’t socially distance themselves to wear them and saying, “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact, they will have an effect, and we need everything we can get.” Trump has previously referred to wearing masks as a personal choice or influenced by political correctness.
