Meadows says Fauci was wrong to compare the coronavirus to the 1918 pandemic

White House Chief of Staff Mark MeadowsMark Randall Meadows Fauci says “bizarre” efforts to discredit him only hurt the files of the White House group Watchdog Hatch Act complaint against Meadows The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Argentum – California, a coronavirus warning story as it twists to avoid infections MORE said Thursday that Anthony FauciAnthony FauciFauci’s wife talks about the criticism: “They are making things up.” Fauci Says Relationship With Trump Is Good, But That He’d Quit The Workforce If Hillicon Valley Was Asked: Twitter Accounts Of Obama, Biden, Musk, And Others Are Compromised | United States Announces Sanctions on Huawei, Citing Human Rights Abuses | Pompeo ‘confident’ that foreign opponents will interfere in elections MORE He was wrong to compare the coronavirus to the 1918 flu pandemic, calling his comments “false” and “irresponsible”.

Meadows made the comments on Fox News after rebuking White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s decision to write an opinion piece criticizing Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the United States, who the chief of staff He said “it was not appropriate”.

Meadows went on to argue that not everything Fauci says is correct.

“I was in Georgetown the other day and suggested that this virus was worse or as bad as the 1918 flu epidemic. And I can tell you that it is not only false, but irresponsible to suggest,” Meadows told Martha MacCallum of Fox News. “Listen, we all say things and do things we wish we hadn’t done.”

“I understand that Dr. Fauci is going backwards and telling the American people that that was not accurate and that it was not based on science,” Meadows continued. A spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci heads, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meadows was referring to comments Fauci made Tuesday during a Georgetown University Global Health Initiative webinar during which he described the coronavirus as a “pandemic of historical proportions” and suggested that it was possible that the coronavirus might approach. to the “severity” of the 1918 pandemic.

“Right now, if we look at the magnitude of the 1918 pandemic, where 50 to 75 million people died, I mean that she was the mother of all pandemics and truly historic. I hope we don’t even address that with this, but you have the possibility to … approach it seriously, although I hope that the types of interventions that we are going to carry out and that we are implementing do not allow that to happen, ”Fauci said.

Fauci said the two pandemics are also similar because they were caused by new viruses that leapt from animals to humans and were also highly transmissible from person to person.

There have been more than 13.7 million cases of coronavirus worldwide and more than 588,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, has faced criticism from White House aides in recent days, including the deputy chief of staff and director of social media for Navarro and the White House. Dan Scavino, who posted a cartoon mocking the top health official for his Facebook page.

A White House official also circulated a list of “mistakes” that Fauci made in the media over the weekend, including his March statement that people did not need to cover their faces. Fauci and other public health experts have changed their views on the masks as evidence showed that asymptomatic people can transmit the virus. Fauci described the criticism as “strange” in an interview with The Atlantic.

Fauci has been a key public health voice amid the coronavirus pandemic, offering unadorned assessments of the threat presented by COVID-19 that have cut the most optimistic pronouncements from President TrumpProgressive group Donald John Trump launches M pro-Biden ad purchase targeting young voters Ilhan Omar: Republican Party response to calls for police reform ‘was cruel’ The White House considers a total travel ban for members and families of the Chinese Communist Party: MORE report and the white house. Fauci has sometimes contradicted Trump’s public statements without directly criticizing the President.

Navarro’s extraordinary op-ed published on USA Today on Tuesday explained his disagreements with Fauci’s views and suggested that his advice should be taken with “skepticism and caution.”

The White House communications operation sought to distance itself from the piece, saying it did not undergo normal authorization processes. Both Trump and Meadows have publicly criticized Navarro for the move.

“He made a statement representing himself,” Trump told Navarro journalists at the White House before leaving for a trip to Georgia on Wednesday. “You shouldn’t be doing that. No, I have a very good relationship with Anthony.”

Meadows said Thursday that the White House has “many people who have many different opinions” and expressed the hope that they will find an opportunity to work together to “prioritize the American people in the future.”

Trump has sometimes expressed his disagreement with Fauci. That includes last week, when Trump said in an interview that he disagreed with Fauci’s assessment that the United States is still “knee-deep in the first wave” of the coronavirus.

States like Arizona, Texas, California and Florida have seen a worrying increase in cases in recent weeks, prompting states to reverse their plans to reopen businesses.

Jessie Hellmann contributed.