Tag: Dr. Fauci

Fauci gives Congress COVID-19 warning

The Hill logoAnthony Fauci, the administration’s top infectious disease doctor, told a House panel on Tuesday that rising U.S. cases of COVID-19 are “disturbing” as new signs emerged of the United States falling further behind other countries in containing the novel coronavirus.

The coronavirus is surging in more than half the country, and states like Florida, Texas and Arizona are setting records of new cases almost daily.

Yet states are continuing to push forward with reopening businesses and lifting restrictions, and Fauci warned that without the ability to fully identify, isolate and trace the contacts of the infected individuals, the situation could worsen. Continue reading.

Fauci: US seeing ‘disturbing’ new surge of infections

The Hill logoAnthony Fauci, the administration’s top infectious disease doctor, told a House panel on Tuesday that the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a “mixed bag,” adding that a new increase in cases is “disturbing.”

“In some respects, we’ve done very well,” Fauci said during an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, specifically praising the way New York has been containing the worst outbreak in the country to date.

“However, in other areas of the country, we are now seeing a disturbing surge of infections that looks like it’s a combination, but one of the things is an increase in community spread. And that’s something I’m really quite concerned about,” Fauci said.  Continue reading.

Fauci: We need more testing, not less

The Hill logoAnthony Fauci on Tuesday said the nation needs to do more testing for the coronavirus, adding that to his knowledge, he and other top administration officials have never been told to slow down testing, as President Trumpsuggested during a campaign event on Saturday.

“I know for sure that, to my knowledge, none of us have ever been told to slow down on testing,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a House hearing when asked about Trump’s comments. “That just is a fact. In fact, we will be doing more testing.”

Trump sparked outrage when he said during a rally in Tulsa, Okla., that more testing makes the country look bad by identifying more coronavirus cases, adding that he had told his staff to slow down testing. Continue reading.

Trump rejects Fauci’s warning about football’s return

The president’s rebuke came after Fauci threw cold water on football’s plans to spring back to action.

President Donald Trump on Friday rebuked his administration’s top infectious disease expert, rejecting Dr. Anthony Fauci’s warning that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could keep football from returning this fall.

“Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “They are planning a very safe and controlled opening.”

The president’s social media post put him at odds with the man who spent weeks as perhaps the most prominent face of the White House’s coronavirus response team. But Fauci’s role appears to have diminished in recent weeks as the Trump administration has shifted toward efforts aimed at reopening the country. Continue reading.

Trump blasts health adviser: ‘Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football’

The Hill logoPresident Trump pushed back on comments his top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, made about the risks of an NFL season on Friday, indicating he wants the season to go forward.

“Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football,” Trump tweeted. “They are planning a very safe and controlled opening. However, if they don’t stand for our National Anthem and our Great American Flag, I won’t be watching!!!”

Trump’s tweet was in reference to comments Fauci made to CNN on Thursday, when the doctor said it would be “very hard” for the NFL to have a season safely without having players in a “bubble,” which the league currently does not have plans for. Continue reading.

 

Dr. Fauci, Tulsa Officials Warn Against Trump Rally

Public health experts are warning about the risks of Trump holding a campaign rally in Tulsa as the state experiences record increases in new coronavirus cases. Once again, Trump has put his ego over the advice of health experts.

Dr. Fauci warned of the risk of Trump holding his Tulsa rally and said “of course” he wouldn’t attend because of coronavirus.
Washington Post: “‘Of course not’: Fauci says he personally wouldn’t attend Trump’s Tulsa rally, citing coronavirus”

Tulsa public officials and health experts say “there is nothing good” about Trump’s rally and “it’s like seeing a train wreck coming.”
Tulsa Health Department Executive Director: “I recommended it be postponed until it’s safer.” Continue reading “Dr. Fauci, Tulsa Officials Warn Against Trump Rally”

Fauci Confirms Public-Health Experts Downplayed Efficacy of Masks to Ensure They Would Be Available to Health-care Workers

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, confirmed that public-health experts discouraged the public from wearing face masks towards the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak because they were concerned there would not be enough available for health-care workers.

During the early weeks of the pandemic, public-health experts “were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply,” Fauci said in an interview with TheStreet.

“We wanted to make sure that the people, namely the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected,” Fauci continued. Continue reading.

Viruses like the one that causes COVID-19 have long been Dr. Anthony Fauci’s ‘worst nightmare’

For years, viruses like the one that causes COVID-19 has been the stuff of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s nightmares.

Speaking to a digital version of an annual conference of biotechnology executives, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Tuesday he long expected – and hoped against – the arrival of a new respiratory virus that jumped from animals, was highly contagious, and potentially lethal.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, he said, has more of those factors than any other disease he’s seen in his lifetime.

The Hill interview: Fauci on why a vaccine by end of year is ‘aspirational’

The Hill logoThe nation’s top infectious disease expert said Friday that an aggressive investment into the development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus might make it possible to distribute millions of doses as the year comes to a close.

In an interview with The Hill, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), urged caution and said the rapid development of a safe and effective vaccine was not guaranteed.

But he said the government was taking the unprecedented step of beginning production on promising vaccine candidates even before they are proven, a financial risk that would shave months off a typical development schedule. Continue reading.

Dr. Fauci is pushed into the background as Trump barrels forward with ‘reopening’

AlterNet logoYou may have noticed, of late, a distinct change in the Trump White House pandemic strategy. Out are the pandemic briefings because somebody finally convinced Trump they were making him look bad; in are Trump economic advisers making implausible claims on the Sunday shows. Out are the government medical experts, the ones who kept making news by not entirely agreeing with Trump’s every bizarre new medical invention. (Take malaria medication! Drink bleach!) In is the newest White House press secretary putting on surly Fox & Friends-styled briefings declaring President Awesomedude to have done 12 brilliant things while nobody was looking, all wedged invisibly between the day’s angry tweets.

This leads to the inevitable question: Are the government’s pandemic experts even doing anything at this point, or has Trump’s government simply bailed outright on the premise that they will be doing even a single damn thing to get the pandemic under control?

The last substantive public appearance from top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci (that is, one in which he was allowed to speak) appears to have been on May 4, over two weeks ago—an absence interrupted this week only by a video appearance with actress Julia Roberts. Continue reading.