WASHINGTON – Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday rejected President Donald Trump’s false claims that the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. is “exaggerated.”
“The numbers are real,” said Fauci, one of the country’s leading infectious disease experts, during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “We have well over 300,000 deaths, we have an average of two to three thousand deaths per day.”
He told host Chuck Todd, “All you have to do, Chuck, is go to the trenches, go to the hospitals, go to the intensive care units and see what’s going on. These are real numbers, real people and real deaths. “
Fauci’s interview came in response to Trump tweeting, “The number of cases and deaths of the Chinese virus is greatly exaggerated in the United States because of [The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s] ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries, many of which report, on purpose, very inaccurately and low. “
Trump responded to Fauci by tweeting, “Something like Dr. Fauci is revered by LameStream Media as a great professional, having done, they say, an incredible job, but he works for me and the Trump Administration, and I don’t get any credit for my work. Wow, Could this just be more Fake News? “
Trump spent most of the pandemic spreading misinformation about the virus and trying to minimize its effects.
December was the most deadly and infectious month of the pandemic in America – more than 77,000 people died and 6.4 million contracted the virus throughout the month, according to an analysis by NBC News. Overall, more than 350,000 people died of the virus and almost 20.5 million people were infected.
Fauci said on Sunday that the pandemic “can and probably will get worse in the coming weeks” or “at least maintain this terribly high level of infections and deaths” in the coming weeks, while the United States feels the effects of the trip over the Christmas holiday .
“This is what happens. It is terrible, it is unfortunate, but it was predictable,” he said.
“Instead of sitting down and throwing our hands up and saying, ‘My God, it’s getting worse’, we need to bend over some of the fundamental things that we talk about all the time – the uniform wearing of masks, the physical aspect distance and avoid crowded environments and crowds, especially indoors “
Now that two vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, there are concerns that the country is not increasing its vaccination program quickly enough. Although Fauci admitted that the country is “a little behind,” he preached patience as the program expands.
“No excuses, we’re not where we want to be. But hopefully, we’re going to get a little momentum and get back where we want to be when it comes to putting you in people’s arms,” he said.