- Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Donald Trump “most likely” cost lives with the disinformation of COVID-19.
- As president, Trump regularly downplayed the severity of the pandemic.
- “We really need to restore trust and restore a unified approach,” Fauci told CNN.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ leading infectious disease expert, said on Friday that Donald Trump “most likely” cost Americans lives as president by spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
Asked by a CNN presenter on Friday morning whether the Trump administration’s lack of “openness” and truthfulness about the pandemic has cost lives, Fauci replied, “You know, most likely yes”.
Recognizing how any criticism of Trump could be perceived, Fauci then said that he did not want that response to be a “catch phrase” before adding: “Especially when you are almost in a crisis with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths we have – when you start talking about things that don’t make sense medically and scientifically, that clearly doesn’t help. “
Trump regularly minimized the threat posed by COVID-19, promoted unproven medical treatments for the virus, scoffed at the use of masks, urged states to end blockages faster than public health experts recommended, told Americans not to fear the virus and contradicted the addendum scientists.
A study conducted by researchers at Cornell University and released in late September found that Trump was “probably the biggest driver of COVID-19’s ‘infodemic’ misinformation”.
President Joe Biden made Fauci, who also heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, his primary medical advisor. Biden wants to “redefine” the country’s approach to the virus and “let science speak,” said Fauci.
“We really need to restore confidence and restore a unified approach,” he added.
Fauci also criticized the Trump administration’s decision to leave much of the response to last year’s pandemic to state officials, rather than developing a national strategy and helping states implement it.
“The best thing to do is to have a plan, to make the federal government interact with the states in a synergistic, cooperative, collaborative way, assisting with resources and assisting in planning. At the same time, respecting the individual issues that any individual state can have, “said Fauci.” That’s the way to go, not, ‘You’re on your own, goodbye, see you.’ “
During a news conference on Thursday, Fauci expressed relief that Biden said he was committed to letting scientists guide his response to the pandemic.
“The idea that you can come up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence is – what science is, and knowing what it is, let science speak, is a somewhat liberating feeling,” he told reporters. .
The United States is suffering from the world’s most severe coronavirus outbreak. On Friday, more than 24.6 million Americans tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 410,000 people died of the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.