Trump’s Top disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci responded to White House’s attacks

Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is a leading member of the government’s coronavirus task force. Fauci has hit back at attacks by Trump administration officials regarding his handling of the COVID-19 epidemic. Dr. Fauci informed The Atlantic and said, “Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that. When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president”. His comments came in response to a barrage of criticism of his work on the epidemic from the White House during signs that the relationship between him and Donald Trump has soured in recent months.

Dr. Fauci recently announced that he hasn’t briefed the president in the past 2 months, even as coronavirus cases surge across the United States. One such attack came in the form of a list of bullet points forwarded to journalists by the White House of apparent mistakes made by Dr. Fauci. CNN said, “Resembled opposition research on a political opponent”. Others came from deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino. He also posted an anti-Fauci cartoon on his Facebook page. One came from Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro. He also published an op-ed in USA Today on Tuesday in which he wrote, “Dr. Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on”.

Point to be noted that Dr. Fauci said in the interview published on Wednesday that the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country required immediate attention and focus from the White House. He said, “When you look at the numbers, obviously, we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to almost reset this and say, ‘Okay, let’s stop this nonsense.’ We’ve got to figure out, How can we get our control over this now, and, looking forward, how can we make sure that next month, we don’t have another example of California, Texas, Florida, and Arizona? So rather than these games, people are playing, let’s focus on that. Well, that is a bit bizarre. And I have to tell you, I think if I sit here and just shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Well, you know, that’s life in the fast lane’”.