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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – America’s leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose advocacy of public health guidelines to combat the coronavirus has come into conflict with President Donald Trump’s downplaying of the pandemic, said the Tuesday that the recent rash of infections at the White House could have been prevented.
Several close Trump associates and high-ranking Republican politicians have tested positive for the coronavirus since the Republican president announced Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump had contracted the virus.
“Take a look at what happened this week in the White House,” Fauci said in an interview with the Kennedy Political Union of the American University, when asked what advice he had on how people could discuss preventive action with family members who believed that the pandemic was a hoax.
“That is a reality, right there. And every day that passes more people who are infected appear. It is not a hoax. It is a regrettable situation when you see something like this because that could have been avoided,” Fauci said.
Fauci has long been a proponent of the use of face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Trump returned to the White House on Monday from a military hospital where he spent three nights being treated for COVID-19, telling Americans to “get out there” and not allow their lives to be dominated by the virus.
He left the hospital wearing a mask, but took it off to pose for photos on the White House balcony and did not put it back on when he entered the building.
The president, who is behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election, has pushed for a quicker reopening of the economy and schools and accused Democrats of preventing it for political purposes.
Trump rarely wears a mask in public and there is often little social distancing at his campaign rallies and at White House events.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has attributed an increase in coronavirus infection in part to the fact that the country did not shut down completely.
More than 210,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus and more than 7 million have been infected, more than in any other country.
Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top speechwriters and an influential adviser on Trump’s hardline immigration policy, became the latest reported COVID case among Trump associates on Tuesday. Trump. [L1N2GX2HH]
Others who announced they have tested positive in recent days include Trump’s close adviser Hope Hicks; White House Spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany; Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien; and Republican Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson. [nL1N2GX1CW]
(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Edited by Mary Milliken and Michael Perry)
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