Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, spoke candidly about the difficulties he faced in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in the Trump administration and his hope for the future, in an interview with senior contributor Ted Koppel for “CBS Sunday Morning”, to be broadcast on January 24th.
[Watch a preview by clicking on the video above.]
Fauci talked to Koppel about the challenges he faced in working with the Trump administration and the threats against him – and his family – because of his work in the pandemic.
“It is very worrying,” he revealed. “I mean, I have to tell you, I’m not afraid – of me, by myself. But what really disturbs me is the harassment … the continuous harassment, you know, of my three daughters. … Crazy people, you know, they know who they are, they know where they live, they know their phone number, they know where they work.
“And it’s just … it infuriates me.”
CBS News
Fauci emphasized that more consistent leadership during the pandemic could have saved lives. “I think if we had the public health messages from the top, through the people in the trenches, they were consistent, that things could have been different,” he said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure they would be different.”
Fauci, who became a household name during the pandemic, has hope for the future. “At the moment things are looking up. But they are going to get a lot better because President Biden has made it clear that this is his priority,” he told Koppel.
“You know that the goal that has been set, which I believe is fully achievable, is to have 100 million vaccinations. Vaccinated people; 100 million people vaccinated in the first 100 days, ”said Fauci. “Primary and impulse.”
Fauci also opened up about what went wrong with responding to the pandemic: “You can’t have messy messages. You can’t have the politicization of public health messages. I mean, the idea that wearing a mask or not has become a statement politics … it makes it difficult to implement a good public health measure. ”
Fauci said he understands that there are risks in setting ambitious goals to vaccinate Americans, but said things will be different with the Biden government.
“And that was one of the things that was kind of refreshing, in one of the first meetings that we had with President Biden and Vice President Harris, is that he said, ‘We can have setbacks. But you know when that happens what we’re going to We are not going to point the finger. We are not going to blame people. We are not going to hide anything. We are going to be completely transparent and honest and we are going to try and fix it. ‘”
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