- Peter Navarro, a White House business adviser, criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force.
- “Dr. Fauci has good manners with the public, but he has been wrong about everything that I have interacted with,” Navarro said in a statement to The Washington Post.
- In the past few weeks, a gap has opened between Fauci and the White House, and the interview expert bluntly criticized mistakes in the US response to the pandemic.
- According to the Post, Navarro has been pressing against Fauci since the doctor refused to endorse unproven hydroxychloroquine, which had been promoted by Navarro and Trump.
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Peter Navarro, business adviser to President Donald Trump, said Dr. Anthony Fauci is “wrong about everything” when the White House steps up its attempt to discredit its own infectious disease expert.
“Dr. Fauci has good manners with the public, but he has been wrong about everything that I have interacted with,” Navarro said in a statement to The Washington Post for a story about Fauci being sidelined.
He continued: “Now Fauci says that a declining death rate does not matter when it is the most important statistic to help guide the pace of our economic reopening. So when asked if I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is only With precaution “.
The president said a continued decline in the proportion of the US population dying from the coronavirus is proof that his strategy has worked, despite an alarming increase in infections.
But at a live press conference last week, Fauci warned that “it is a false narrative to feel comfortable with a lower death rate.”
“There are so many other things that are very dangerous and bad with this virus, don’t get yourself into false complacency.”
Last week, the death rate started rising in several US states for the first time in several months. Usually there is a delay between an increase in infections and death rates.
Navarro’s statement came on Sunday when the White House began distributing a list of errors made by Fauci to the media, in an apparent attempt to undermine one of the most trusted government officials in the United States.
In the past few weeks, Fauci has conducted forceful evaluations of US failures in response to the coronavirus, calling for states where infection rates are rising to reintroduce restrictions.
His remarks contrast with the optimistic message Trump has delivered in trying to stimulate the American economy ahead of the November presidential election.
Navarro has long called for the government to quickly lift restrictions recommended by public health officials like Fauci, he warned in an interview with The New York Times in April that the damage caused by the shutdown could eventually exceed that of the virus.
Navarro is one of several White House officials pressing against Fauci, according to the Post. The two quarreled, according to the report, over the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which Trump and Navarro touted as a coronavirus cure.
Fauci, in public and internal statements, declined to endorse it, saying it had not been shown to be effective.
The Food and Drug Administration withdrew its permission for the drug to be used to treat emergency patients after studies found it was dangerous for some, particularly those with underlying heart conditions.
Navarro, a Chinese hawk, has also been accused of spreading erroneous political information about the virus, alleging that China deliberately tried to spread the disease.
