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Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, spoke on Thursday about a “liberating feeling” of being able to speak the scientific truth about coronavirus without fear of Donald Trump’s “repercussions”.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had a tortuous relationship with the former president and was increasingly removed from public instructions.
But the 80-year-old returned to the White House podium on Thursday after Joe Biden launched a national Covid-19 strategy and signed 10 executive orders to fight a pandemic that has claimed more than 400,000 lives in the United States.
“One of the things we are going to do is to be completely transparent, open and honest,” Fauci told reporters. “If things go wrong, don’t point fingers, but fix them. And make everything we do based on science and evidence.
“It was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the president and he said it several times.”
Asked if he would like to change or clarify something he said during Trump’s presidency, Fauci insisted that he was always frank, observing ironically. “That’s why I got in trouble sometimes.”
Fauci and other public health advisers were forced to follow a delicate line as the president used instructions from the coronavirus task force to minimize the virus, promote miraculous cures and score political points. On one occasion, Trump thought about injecting disinfectant into patients, but the response coordinator, Deborah Birx, remained silent.
Fauci’s frankness did not go unnoticed. During the election race in October, Trump told campaign staff: “Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to you, we would have 500,000 deaths. ”At a rally in early November, as the crowds shouted“ Fauci of fire! Fire Fauci! ”, The President suggested that he could do just that.
At Thursday’s briefing, Fauci was asked what it’s like to no longer have Trump hanging over him. “Obviously, I don’t want to go back in history, but it’s very clear that there were things that were said – whether it’s things like hydroxychloroquine [pushed as a treatment by Trump] and things like that – it was really uncomfortable because it wasn’t based on scientific facts.
“I can tell you, I have no pleasure in being in a position to contradict the president, so it was really something that you didn’t feel you could say and there would be no repercussions for that. 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 liberating sensation ”.
Although Biden has just condemned the distribution of vaccines under the Trump administration as a “terrible failure so far”, Fauci said the new team “is not starting from scratch” as it tries to get shots more quickly. “I believe that the goal that was set by the president, to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days, is a very reasonable goal.”
He added: “If we have 70% to 85% of the country vaccinated, say by the end of summer, mid-summer, I believe, by the time we get to autumn, we will be approaching a degree of normality.”
Possible US Plateau
Fauci told the briefing that, based on seven-day averages, the coronavirus may be stabilizing in the U.S., but warned that there may always be delays in reporting data. “One of the new features of this new government: if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess,” he said.
After Fauci’s return to the west wing, Nicole Wallace, a former director of communications for the White House, told viewers on the MSNBC network: “It looks like this briefing will forever be remembered as the one where Tony Fauci regained his rhythm.”
The executive orders signed by Biden establish a Covid-19 testing council to increase testing, address supply shortfalls, establish protocols for international travelers and direct resources to hard-hit minority communities. They also require the use of masks at airports and on certain public transport, including many trains, planes and intercity buses.
Fauci was followed at the restored White House daily meeting by press secretary Jen Psaki. She confirmed that the new government would seek a five-year extension of the New Start treaty with Russia, which limits both countries’ arsenals to 1,550 strategic warheads installed each.
The 2010 treaty, the last arms control treaty remaining after the Trump administration, is due to expire on February 5, but an extension would be feasible if Russia agrees, even in the remaining two weeks. Vladimir Putin has signaled that he is open to an extension.
“The president made it clear a long time ago that the New Start treaty is in the interest of the national security of the United States, and that extension makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversary as it is now,” said Psaki. “New Start is the only remaining treaty that restricts Russian nuclear forces and is an anchor for strategic stability between our two countries.”
But she added that the government “would hold Russia accountable for its reckless and adversarial actions” and that US intelligence would assess the cyber attack Solar Winds last year, the assassination attempt on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and reported Russian rewards for the murder of American soldiers by extremist groups in Afghanistan.