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Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Photo / Getty Images
For most of 2020, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly denied the toll the Covid-19 pandemic has taken on his nation.
In the final days before the election, his message has been no different: lashing out at doctors, questioning science, and declaring that the United States is “rounding the turn” on a virus that has killed nearly a quarter of a million Americans and infected about 10 million.
As a result, the United States should prepare for “a lot of damage,” a rising death toll and a winter of 100,000 coronavirus cases or more every day, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert warned.
“We are very hurt,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Washington Post in a scathing interview published Saturday night.
“It’s not a good situation. All the stars are lined up in the wrong place as the fall and winter season progresses, with people gathering indoors at home. It couldn’t be positioned worse.”
Fauci, who the US president has previously referred to as an “idiot” who “has been here for 500 years,” said the United States needs to make an “abrupt change” in its public health practices and behaviors, pointing to the actions of Trump’s challenger. Joe Biden as an example.
While Trump has spoken out in states and cities that saw record increases in hospitalizations and infections, Biden “is taking it seriously from a public health perspective” by constantly wearing a mask in public and holding socially distancing events, Fauci said.
The president’s perspective, meanwhile, focuses on “the economy and the reopening of the country.”
Despite cases increasing once again, Fauci told the publication that the White House coronavirus task force meets less frequently and has little influence due to Trump’s focus on reopening the United States, and He said “the public health aspect of the task force has greatly diminished.” He added that he had not spoken to Trump since his Covid-19 diagnosis in October.
Scott Atlas, who has become Trump’s favorite pandemic adviser and advocated letting the virus spread among healthy young Americans, is someone with whom Fauci said he has “real problems.”
“He’s a smart guy who talks about things that I think he doesn’t have any real knowledge or experience with,” he said of Atlas.
“He keeps talking about things that when he dissects and analyzes them, it doesn’t make any sense.”
In a statement to the Washington Post, White House spokesman Judd Deere criticized Fauci for his comments, calling them “unacceptable” and accusing the 79-year-old of “playing politics.”
Deere said Fauci “knows the risks [from Covid-19] they are dramatically lower today than they were just a few months ago. “
“It is unacceptable and breaking all the rules for Fauci, a high-ranking member of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force and someone who has praised President Trump’s actions during this pandemic, to choose three days before the election to go into politics. Deere said.
“As a member of the Task Force, Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he has not done so, instead choosing to criticize the president in the media and make his political leanings known by praising President’s opponent – exactly what the American people expect from The Swamp. “
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