Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that the Trump administration likely cost American lives during the coronavirus pandemic with its false ...
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that the Trump administration likely cost American lives during the coronavirus pandemic with its false facts and messages.
In a candid interview with CNN's John Berman, Fauci said trust had to be restored with the American people now that President Donald Trump has left office.
'People were not trusting what health officials were saying. There was great divisiveness. Masking became a political issue,' Fauci said on CNN's 'New Day.
When Berman asked him if the lack of candor during the Trump administration cost lives, Fauci said yes.
'You know, it very likely did. I don't want that, John, to be a sound bite, but if you just look at that, you can see that when you're starting to go down paths not based on any science at all -- and we've been there before. I don't want to rehash it. That is not helpful at all. Particularly when you're in the situation of almost being in a crisis with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths we have,' the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that the Trump administration likely cost American lives during the coronavirus pandemic with its false facts and messages
President Trump rarely wore a face mask as coronavirus cases rose across the country. He continued to hold campaign rallies - although he moved most of them outdoors - but he also held fundraisers and roundtables inside where there was little mask wearing or social distancing.
Trump also touted false medical theories, including his infamous comment about injecting a disinfectant like bleach to fight the virus, which medical experts quickly warned people not to do. Trump later said he was being sarcastic.
He also repeatedly said the virus would disappear on its own. The United States now has more than 24.7 million cases and more than 410,000 deaths.
Fauci now speaks with the authority of the White House again.
On President Joe Biden's first full day in office, Fauci had a packed schedule of administration events. His day began with a 4 a.m. virtual meeting with officials of the World Health Organization, which is based in Switzerland, included his first in-person event wiht Biden and stretched past a 4 p.m. appearance in the White House briefing room with TV appearances in between.
And a liberated doctor made it clear Thursday he's happy to be working for President Biden and took a few pot shots on what it was like working under Trump.
Fauci appeared in the White House press briefing room for the first time since this spring and revealed his true feelings on Trump.
He didn't mention the former president by name but he was clear about the differences of work life in the Biden administration versus that under Trump's.
'One of the new things in this administration is: if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer,' he said, comparing his 24 hours working for Biden to his months of counseling Trump on the coronavirus pandemic.
'One of the things that was very clear as recently as about 15 minutes ago, when I was with the president, is that one of the things that we're going to do is to be completely transparent open and honest if things go wrong.
'Not point fingers but to correct them and to make everything we do be based on science and evidence. I mean that was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the president, and he has said that multiple times,' he noted.
Given his new, free-speaking style, he was asked if there was anything he wanted to clarify or amend that he said during the Trump administration.
'No, I mean I always said everything,' Fauci said. 'That's why I got trouble sometimes.'
Dr. Anthony Fauci made it clear he's happy to be working for President Joe Biden
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, let loose in his first appearance in the White House briefing room in months
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases made it clear he was not joking.
'I was very serious about it, I wasn't joking,' said Fauci, who also serves as Chief Medical Adviser to Biden, when asked about his comments.
Fauci had a contentious relationship with Trump in the president's final months in office. Trump wanted to focus on reopening the economy as Fauci and other medical experts wanted to keep stronger restrictions in place to keep the COVID virus from spreading.
And there was the famous face-palm moment. In March, as Fauci stood behind Trump at the podium in the briefing room, the doctor appeared to chuckle to himself before covering his face with his palm as Trump railed against 'the Deep State Department.'
Fauci was sidelined by the Trump White House, rarely appearing in press briefings and kept from doing interviews with major news outlets. He spread his message about COVID through local news interviews and podcasts. After Trump lost thje election
Trump made his displeasure with Fauci known. He called him a Democrat and publicly mulled firing him although that would have been difficult as Fauci is a career federal employee. Fauci had to have a security detail due to death threats made to him and his family.
In reflecting on his relationship with President Trump, Fauci noted on Thursday he took no joy in contradicting the former commander in chief.
'It was very clear that they were things that were said, regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that. That really was an uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact, I can tell you I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president,' he said.
Trump took a dose of hydroxy in an effort to ward off the coronavirus - a practice many experts expressed doubt about. Trump ultimately got the virus and recovered.
Dr. Anthony Fauci made his first appearance at President Joe Biden's side on Thursday at an event on new executive orders tied to the coronavirus pandemic
Fauci talked about the strain he felt giving briefings under President Trump such as this briefing in April, 2020
Fauci's face palm moment in March went viral
Fauci noted the strain he felt talking about the pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 Americans, while working under Trump.
'You didn't feel like you could say something and there wouldn't be repercussions,' he said.
Of the new administration's stance toward him, Fauci said: 'It is somewhat of a liberating feeling.'
'The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence -- what the science is, and know that's it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling,' Fauci noted.
But he did reject a claim that the Biden administration were 'starting from scratch' with vaccine distribution which had been reported earlier Thursday by CNN.
'No, I mean we're coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas with the, with the previous administration, you can't say it was absolutely not usable at all,' he said.
'So, we are continuing but you're going to see a real ramping up of it.'
Fauci made his first appearance at Biden's side on Thursday, when the president called for the nation to summon a 'full scale war-time effort' to beat back the coronavirus.
Biden also signed new executive orders to speed vaccine delivery and called wearing a mask a patriotic duty.
Fauci also revealed he'd gotten his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
'I did. I had it on the 19th,' he told reporters ahead of the president's event in the State Dining Room.
'I was hoping that I wouldn't get too knocked out. I did for about 24 hours. Now I'm fine,' he said. 'Fatigued. A little achy. You know. Chilly. Not sick.'
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