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Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Donald Trump have had their share of public disagreements regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House recently made extra efforts to discredit Fauci’s work to which he responds with confusion.
READ MORE: White House slams Fauci over coronavirus disagreement with Trump
White House officials released a statement claiming Fauci’s alleged back-and-forth on masks and other coronavirus efforts discredit his work. The memo states, “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.”
Shortly thereafter, Peter Navarro, an assistant to Trump, penned an op-ed published by USA Today doubling down on their opinion of Fauci’s recent work.
“So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution,” he writes in the opinion piece.
READ MORE: Dr. Fauci says US coronavirus cases to reach ‘disturbing’ 100,000 per day
White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah clarified Navarro’s opinion was his own via Twitter.
Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, responded during an interview with The Atlantic. Describing the White House actions as “bizarre”, he says the comment will not deter him from his job.
“I think the problem is too important for me to get into those kinds of thoughts and discussions. I just want to do my job. I’m really good at it. I think I can contribute. And I’m going to keep doing it,” Fauci says to The Atlantic.
He also offers hope for the pandemic, saying the country can get to a better place with the right procedures.
“By pushing a reset button, I don’t mean everybody locking down again. We’ve got to call a time-out and say, “If you’re going to open, we’ve got to get everybody on the same team.” I’m not going to name any states—that’s not helpful—but some states did, in fact, prematurely jump over some checkpoints,” Fauci says when asked about a solution.
He continues “even though we are in the middle of a setback now—you can’t deny that; look at the numbers, you’re dealing with 40,000 to 60,000 infections in a day—it doesn’t mean we’re going to be defeated. But states that are in trouble right now, if those states pause and say, “Okay, we’re going to do it right, everyone wear a mask, bars closed, no congregating in crowds, keep your distance, protect the vulnerable”—if we do that for a few weeks in a row, I’ll guarantee you those numbers will come down.”
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