Coronavirus: Anthony Fauci undermined by Donald Trump’s White House
Donald Trump’s White House has turned against its own top coronavirus adviser, venting that he has been “wrong about everything”.
As coronavirus infections continue to spike across the United States, the White House is actively undermining its own top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci.
White House officials have spoken anonymously to multiple US media publications, including The Washington Post and NBC News, and questioned the value of Dr Fauci’s advice, going so far as to distribute a list of the times he has been wrong.
It’s an unusual move, considering Dr Fauci is still a senior adviser on President Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force. NBC has compared it to “a political campaign furtively disseminating opposition research about an opponent”.
“Several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things,” an unnamed official told The Post.
The source circulated the aforementioned list, which highlighted comments Dr Fauci made early in the pandemic.
Among them was the scientist’s doubt that asymptomatic people would play a significant role in spreading the virus, and his statement in late February that there was no need for Americans to “change anything that you’re doing on a day-to-day basis”.
Dr Fauci also spent the early months telling people they did not need to wear face masks, only to backflip on that advice later.
Asked about the reason for that shift, Dr Fauci has claimed he was initially concerned about hospitals and health workers running out of personal protective equipment.
“Even though there appears to be some contradiction of, ‘You were saying this then, why are you saying this now?’ actually the circumstances have changed. That is the reason why,” he explained last month.
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The Post reports Dr Fauci is “never in the Oval Office anymore” and no longer briefs Mr Trump on the virus. He last spoke to the President in the first week of June, more than a month ago.
His media appearances, which must be approved by the White House, have also been curtailed. Last week Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS’s Face the Nation, revealed the show’s attempts to book him for an interview had been ignored for months.
That marks a dramatic reduction in exposure for a man who served as the public face of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response throughout March and April.
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Another White House official suggested Dr Fauci should “stop critiquing the task force” in public and “try to fix it” instead.
They said Dr Fauci’s relatively high public approval ratings had upset Mr Trump, whose own ratings have taken a hit during the crisis.
A survey late last month measured Americans’ level of trust in different sources of information about the pandemic.
Dr Fauci was trusted by 67 per cent of respondents. Just 26 per cent trusted Mr Trump. (I should note that the news media didn’t rate much better, with 30 per cent.)
The White House’s criticism of Dr Fauci is not all anonymous.
The President’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, actually went on the record in a separate statement to the press.
“Dr Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on,” Mr Navarro said.
“Now Fauci is saying that a falling mortality rate doesn’t matter when it is the single most important statistic to help guide the pace of our economic reopening. So when you ask me if I listen to Dr Fauci’s advice, my answer is only with caution.”
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Experts in the US have repeatedly warned that coronavirus deaths lag behind infections by at least a fortnight. In fact, Dr Fauci himself made that point when he testified at a Senate hearing last week.
“Deaths always lag considerably behind cases,” he stressed.
“You might remember that, at the time that New York was in their worst situation, where the deaths were going up, the cases were starting to go down. The deaths only came down multiple weeks later.
“So you’re seeing more cases now, while the deaths are going down. The concern is, if those cases then infect people who wind up getting sick and go to the hospital, it is conceivable that you may see the deaths going up.”
Over the weekend, the country’s death rate did indeed start to tick up again.
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Admiral Brett Giroir, another member of the White House task force who serves as the administration’s “testing czar”, put his assessment of Dr Fauci a little more delicately than Mr Navarro during an appearance on Meet The Press.
“I respect Dr Fauci a lot, but Dr Fauci is not 100 per cent right, and he also doesn’t necessarily – and he admits that – have the whole national interest in mind. He looks at it from a very narrow, public health point of view,” Admiral Giroir said.
TODAY on #MTP: Admiral Brett Giroir says “Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right.†#MTP #IfItSunday@HHS_ASH: “He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view.†pic.twitter.com/EE07SYXEAd
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 12, 2020
During his Senate testimony, Dr Fauci warned the state of the pandemic in the US was “really not good” and it was still “knee deep in the first wave”.
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Mr Trump contradicted him during an interview with Full Court Press host Greta van Susteren.
“I think we are in a good place, I disagree with him,” the President said.
“We’ve done a good job. I think we are going to be – in two, three, four weeks, by the time we next speak, I think we are going to be in very good shape.”
“Dr Fauci said don’t wear masks. Now he says wear them,” he added, implying Dr Fauci’s advice could not be trusted.
Later in the week, during an interview with FiveThirtyEigh t’s coronavirus podcast, Dr Fauci delivered another frank assessment of America’s performance.
“How do you think the US is doing right now? If you’re looking across the world, what are your feelings about how we’re doing right now?” host Anna Rothschild asked.
“Well, let me say that there are parts of the United States, like where you live right now (New York), that are doing really well. That you’ve been through something really bad and you have things under control,” Dr Fauci said.
“Other cities are doing well. But as a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not.”
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Then, speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity, Mr Trump was asked to address the “recent rise in outbreaks”.
“What do you make of these hotspots, as we call them, in Florida and Texas and other states, and Dr Fauci’s comments?” Hannity asked.
“First of all, the mortality rate – and Dr Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” Mr Trump responded.
“A lot of (the experts) said, ‘Don’t wear a mask, don’t wear a mask.’ Now they are saying, ‘Wear a mask.’ A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of mistakes.”
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