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Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on infectious diseases in the US, spoke on Thursday about the “sense of freedom” of being able to speak scientifically about the coronavirus without fear of “reactions” from Donald Trump.
Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, suffered a sad relationship with the former president and was increasingly distracted from public meetings.
But the 80-year-old returned to the White House podium Thursday after Joe Biden released Covid-19’s national strategy and signed 10 action orders to combat a pandemic that is now has more than 400,000 lives in the US.
“One of the things we’re going to do is be completely transparent, open and honest,” Fauci told reporters. “If things go wrong, don’t point fingers, just correct them. And to do everything we do based on science and evidence.
“That was literally a conversation I had 15 minutes ago with the president and he has said that many times.”
When asked if he would like to change or clarify anything he said during Trump’s presidency, Fauci admitted that he had always been honest, heartily noting. “That’s why I was in trouble sometimes.”
Fauci and other public health advisers had to walk a fine line while the president used coronavirus archive action messages to reduce the virus, push for miraculous cures and score political points. Trump once thought about injecting patients with disinfectants but response coordinator Deborah Birx remained silent.
Fauci’s openness did not go unnoticed. During the October election race, Trump told campaign workers: “Fauci is a tragedy. If I listened to it, we would have 500,000 deaths. At a gathering in early November, when a large crowd was singing “Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!”, The president suggested that he might do so.
At Thursday’s meeting, Fauci was asked how he feels Trump is not approaching. “Of course, I don’t want to go back in time but it’s very clear that things have been said – be it for things like hydroxychloroquine [pushed as a treatment by Trump] and things like that – that was very uncomfortable because they weren’t based on scientific fact.
“I can tell you, I don’t really enjoy being in a position to go against the president, so it was really something you didn’t feel that you could say something and there would be no effect about it. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence is, what the science is and know that it is, let the science speak, is a feeling of freedom. “
Although Biden had just condemned the release of a vaccine under the Trump administration as a “difficult failure so far,” Fauci said the new team is not “starting from scratch” and is trying to get blows in arms faster. “I believe the goal set by the president, of getting 100 million people vaccinated in 100 days, is a reasonable goal.”
He said: “If we get 70% to 85% of the country vaccinated, we will say before the end of summer, mid – summer, I believe, before we reach the fall, we will come close to a level of regularity. “
Capable US plateau
Fauci told the meeting that, according to a seven-day average, the coronavirus could be on the rise in the U.S. but warned that there may always be a flaw in data reporting. “One of the new things about this new administration is: if you don’t know the answer, don’t measure,” he said.
After Fauci returned to the west wing, Nicole Wallace, former director of communications at the White House, told MSNBC network observers: “This meeting is likely to be remembered forever as the one where Tony Fauci got his groove back. “
The regulatory orders signed by Biden will establish a Covid-19 test board to increase testing, address supply shortfalls, establish protocols for international travelers and direct resources to hard-core minority communities. . They also require the application of mascara in airports and on special public transport, including many interchangeable trains, planes, and buses.
Fauci was followed by a daily White House briefing meeting with media secretary Jen Psaki. She confirmed that the new administration would seek a five-year extension of the New Start treaty with Russia that limits the two countries’ arsenals to 1,550 strategic warheads used each.
The 2010 treaty, the last remaining arms control treaty after the Trump administration, is expected to expire on February 5, but an extension would be possible if Russia agrees, even in the two weeks that is left. Vladimir Putin has stated that he is open to expansion.
“The president has long been clear that the New Start treaty is in the national security interests of the United States, and this expansion makes even more sense when relations with Russia are hostile. as it stands at the moment, “Psaki said.” New Start is the only remaining contract restricting Russia ‘s nuclear forces, and is an anchor of strategic stability between our two countries. “
But she said the administration would “hold Russia accountable for its reckless and hostile actions” and that U.S. intelligence would assess last year’s Solar Winds cyber attack, an attempt by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to murdered and reported on Russian bounties for the assassination of U.S. soldiers by anti-Afghan groups.