Leading US disease expert Anthony Fauci reacts to ‘beheading’ call from former Trump aide Steve Bannon

America’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, described former aide to President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, who called for his beheading as “unusual” amid the “very stressful” environment of the coronavirus in the United States.

The member of the White House coronavirus task force and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases made the comments when it appeared on ABC at 7.30am Wednesday night.

Almost 240,000 people have died in the US from Covid-19 and the country is reporting a daily record of cases above 120,000.

Host Leigh Sales asked, “How has this been for you as a human being?”

“Well, it was very stressful,” Fauci replied.

“To deny that would be to deny reality when there are public figures like Bannon calling for your beheading, that’s really unusual.

“That’s not the kind of thing you think about when you go to medical school, to become a doctor.

“But I’ve gotten past it by focusing like a laser beam on my target. I am a scientist and I am a doctor.

“My goal is to help develop vaccines. I think we’ve been successful in that. Now the next challenge is to develop good therapies and the other challenge is to get public health measures heard by the American public.

“If you focus on that and don’t get distracted by all the other noises, then it’s not as bad as you think.

“It’s when you start concentrating on that other garbage, as I call it, it’s noise. It doesn’t make sense. People ask to be beheaded, fired, thrown into the fire pit. That’s just noise. Pay attention to that.”

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon was banned from Twitter and Facebook last week after a horrific segment on his War Room: Pandemic podcast.

Bannon said he wanted to go back “to the old days of Tudor England” where it would have been acceptable for the heads of Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray to be put on pikes in front of the White House.

At the beginning of the interview, Sales asked “how guilty” was Trump for the number of deaths from coronavirus in the United States.

“I’m not going to get into political discussions, I can guarantee it,” Fauci replied.

The 79-year-old has served under six presidents and in 2021, Democrat Joe Biden will be the seventh.

Before the presidential election, won by Biden, Trump hinted that he wanted to fire Fauci.

A chant of “Fuego Fauci” broke out at a Trump rally at the Opa-Locka airport.

Trump responded to the crowd: “Don’t tell anyone, but let me wait until a little after the election.”

Speaking in Ohio in early November, Biden said, “I’ll hire Fauci … and fire Trump!”

Trump has yet to admit defeat in the presidential election.

On Wednesday, Sales asked Fauci if he had any conversations with President-elect Biden or his team “about pandemic politics under the incoming administration.”

“Right now, the situation, as you well know, is a pretty tense situation in the United States with regard to transitions,” he said.

“So right now things are on hold for the moment.”

Fauci said he would like to see a “uniform nationwide” adherence to the universal use of face masks, maintain physical distance, avoid large crowds or gatherings, try to do more outdoors and have people wash their hands.

“We are going through a very difficult situation.

“Every day it seems like we are setting another record.”

Regarding “lockdowns,” he said that approach would be “almost the last resort.”

But he noted that Australia was an example of a “very successful result of a blockade” and now “on a very good basis”.

“We know that there is a considerable amount of Covid-19 fatigue globally and certainly in the United States,” Fauci told ABC.

“I don’t think that’s well received. I don’t think lockdown is necessary. I think people have the misperception that when you say, ‘Wear masks, avoid crowds, keep your distance,’ that means blocking. It’s not like that.

“You can keep businesses small and large open as long as you implement certain fundamental public health practices.”

The United States awaits the results of the second vaccine candidate

Sales asked when Fauci “realistically” expects mass vaccinations in the US, following news from Pfizer and BioNTech that his vaccine candidate is at least 90 percent effective.

Fauci said it will be a “gradual process” but expects vaccines to start next month, “probably before the Christmas holidays.”

He told CNN earlier this week that he expected low-risk Americans to take the hit in April 2021, and those who were considered to be at higher risk of receiving it earlier.

“What we’ve been dealing with in this country is vaccinations or people really skeptical about getting vaccinated,” he said at 7.30.

“That is practically exceeded when you get a vaccine as highly effective as the Pfizer vaccine, which is over 90, an efficacy close to 95 percent.

“I think those kinds of numbers without a worrying safety signal will get many, many more people vaccinated than I would have anticipated.

Fauci said it was important to note that the Pfizer vaccine is not the only one currently being tested in the United States and that other results are imminent.

“There is another very close one made by a company called Moderna that is a similar, if not identical, candidate with an mRNA.

“We’re likely to see results from them, probably at some point, I think in the next two weeks, or two and a half to three weeks, which means you will have two companies that will have vaccines available.”