Tag: Dr. Fauci

Fauci says task force ‘argued strongly’ with Trump to extend coronavirus guidelines

The Hill logoDr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said Monday that the White House coronavirus task force aggressively lobbied President Trump to extend social distancing guidelines another month as the U.S. grapples with the fallout of the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

“We felt that if we prematurely pulled back, we would only form an acceleration or rebound of something, which would put you behind where you were before, and that’s a reason why we argued strongly with the president that he not withdraw those guidelines,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“And he did listen,” Fauci added. Continue reading.

Right-Wing Media Intensify Attacks On Dr. Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the past 36 years, is a widely respected immunologist and major public face of the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19. Despite his credibility established over decades as a public health official, right-wing media have begun to launch attacks against “Dr. Doom Fauci,” blaming the medical expert for allegedly harming the economy and undermining President Donald Trump. The New York Times reported that Trump is “losing his patience” with Fauci.

Despite lacking the platform of someone like Fox host Sean Hannity, fringe right-wing media figures and outlets — one of which formerly had a White House correspondent in the briefing room just to troll journalists — can still reach and influence the thinking of Trump, who is exposed to a wide range of ridiculous lies online.

Pro-Trump podcaster Bill Mitchell: Continue reading.

Fauci says Trump’s Easter goal for lifting coronavirus restrictions should be ‘flexible’

The Hill logoDr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said President Trump’s stated timeline for the lifting of restrictions on parts of the country by Easter Sunday should be “flexible.”

Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a prominent member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, added it is important for public health officials to gauge how widespread coronavirus is in parts of the country that haven’t reported significant numbers of cases.

“That’s really very flexible,” Fauci told reporters at the White House when asked about the president’s timeline, which Trump floated earlier Tuesday during a Fox News virtual town hall on the coronavirus pandemic.  Continue reading.

Trump Has Given Unusual Leeway to Fauci, but Aides Say He’s Losing His Patience

New York Times logoThe president has become increasingly concerned as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci has grown bolder in correcting his falsehoods about the spread of the coronavirus.

President Trump has praised Dr. Anthony S. Fauci as a “major television star.” He has tried to demonstrate that the administration is giving him free rein to speak. And he has deferred to Dr. Fauci’s opinion several times at the coronavirus task force’s televised briefings.

But Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has grown bolder in correcting the president’s falsehoods and overly rosy statements about the spread of the coronavirus in the past two weeks — and he has become a hero to the president’s critics because of it. And now, Mr. Trump’s patience has started to wear thin.

So has the patience of some White House advisers, who see Dr. Fauci as taking shots at the president in some of his interviews with print reporters while offering extensive praise for Mr. Trump in television interviews with conservative hosts. Continue reading.

Dr. Anthony Fauci reveals his ongoing battle to reason with Trump in surprisingly candid interview: ‘You have to say things 1, 2, 3, 4 times’

AlterNet logoDuring an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci — director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — for Science Magazine, writer Jon Cohen asked the well-known immunologist a blunt question: how has he managed to avoid getting fired from President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force? Fauci responded that despite disagreements “on some things,” Trump “does listen to what I say.” But Fauci, during the interview, went on to say that he has to repeat himself a lot with Trump — and some pundits are saying Fauci probably wouldhave been fired by now were he not so widely respected.

Fauci told Cohen, “When you’re dealing with the White House, sometimes you have to say things one, two, three, four times — and then, it happens. So, I’m going to keep pushing.”

When the Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson tweeted the interview and highlighted the “one, two, three, four times” quote, Twitter user Josh Jordan responded, “This quote is really stunning, and if Fauci wasn’t so well respected by both sides right now, Trump would’ve fired him this morning.” Continue reading.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it’: Sanjay Gupta stunned after Dr. Fauci is forced to fact-check Trump

AlterNet logoCNN’s Sanjay Gupta found himself shocked after watching President Donald Trump try to correct Dr. Anthony Fauci about potential coronavirus treatments.

Shortly after the president’s press conference ended, CNN host John King highlighted Fauci shooting down the idea of using an antimalarial drug to treat the virus.

The information that you’re referring to [regarding the drug] is anecdotal,” Fauci said. “It was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can’t make any definitive statement about it.” Continue reading.

Anthony Fauci undercuts Trump on the flu and other coronavirus assertions

Washington Post logoMidway through a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, a House Republican asked Anthony Fauci, a member of the president’s coronavirus task force, if he was offended by the idea that he could be prevented from speaking openly about the coronavirus by the Trump administration.

“With all due respect,” Fauci said, “I served six presidents and have never done anything other than tell the exact scientific evidence and made policy recommendations based on the science and the evidence.”

The rest of his testimony reinforced that Fauci isn’t exactly toeing anybody’s line. Over and over again, he differed with President Trump’s talking points that play down the threat posed by the novel coronavirus, and he even differed with decisions Trump has made. Continue reading.

Hearing on coronavirus ends abruptly as White House tells experts to come to ’emergency meeting’

AlterNet logoOn Wednesday morning, medical experts, including National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, were testifying before the House Oversight Committee on what to expect from the coronavirus epidemic in the United States. According to Fauci, “The bottom line: It is going to get worse.” Again and again, the information provided in the hearing completely contradicted the rosy statements that have been coming from Donald Trump and other White House officials and warned of a dire situation ahead.

But before the House could learn too many details, the hearing ended in an abrupt and astounding manner, as the witnesses simply got up and left. At 11:30 ET, Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney was told that the witnesses had to depart. In an attempt to explain what was happening, Fauci said they were going to an “emergency meeting” at the White House. Then, to add extra confusion, the White House immediately claimed that the meeting was not an emergency … it was just something that Fauci and Redfield didn’t know about and that was so urgent that they had to leave in the middle of congressional testimony.

On Tuesday, Trump appeared before the nation and assured everyone, “It will go away, just stay calm.” But before his testimony was cut off, Dr. Fauci made a number of statements that were exactly counter to everything that Trump, Mike Pence, and the whole galaxy of Fox News surrogates have been trying to pass off on the nation. Continue reading.

‘You don’t want to go to war with a president’

How Dr. Anthony Fauci is navigating the coronavirus outbreak in the Trump era.

Anthony Fauci might be the one person everyone in Washington trusts right now.

But at 79, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is in the thick of one of the biggest battles of 35 years in the role: The race to contain coronavirus when the nation is deeply polarized and misinformation can spread with one tweet — sometimes, from the president himself.

“You should never destroy your own credibility. And you don’t want to go to war with a president,” Fauci, who has been the country’s top infectious diseases expert through a dozen outbreaks and six presidents, told POLITICO in an interview Friday. “But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth.” Continue reading.