Anthony Fauci is back.
In truth, the nation’s leading infectious-diseases expert never really went away. But after enduring nearly a year of darts and undermining comments from former President Donald Trump, Fauci now speaks with the authority of the White House again.
He called it “liberating” Thursday to be backed by a science-friendly administration that has embraced his recommendations to battle COVID-19.
“One of the new things in this administration is, If you don’t know the answer, don’t guess,” Fauci said in one pointed observation during a White House briefing. “Just say you don’t know the answer.”
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Fauci’s highly visible schedule on Thursday, the first full day of President Joe Biden’s term, underscored the new administration’s confidence in the doctor but also the urgency of the moment.
His day began with a 4 a.m. virtual meeting with officials of the World Health Organization, which is based in Switzerland, and stretched past a 4 p.m. appearance at the lectern in the White House briefing room.
The breakneck pace showcased the urgent need to combat a pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans and reached its deadliest phase just as the new president comes to office.
Fauci made clear that he believed the new administration would not trade in the mixed messages that so often came from the Trump White House, where scientific fact was often obscured by the president’s political agenda.
“The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know and what the science is … it is something of a liberating feeling,” Fauci told reporters. White House press secretary Jen Psaki had invited Psaki to take the podium first at her daily briefing.
Fauci, a holdover from the Trump administration, said about the previous admin's vaccine distribution efforts: "You can't say it was absolutely not usable at all."
(In the last hour, Biden said Trump's vaccine rollout had been a "dismal failure")
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) January 21, 2021
While choosing his words carefully, Fauci acknowledged that it had been difficult at times to work for Trump, who repeatedly played down the severity of the pandemic, refused to consistently promote mask-wearing and often touted unproven scientific remedies, including a malaria drug and even injecting disinfectant.
“It was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact,” Fauci said. He added that he took “no pleasure” in having to contradict the president, a move that often drew Trump’s wrath.
Biden, during his presidential campaign, pledged to making Fauci his chief medical adviser when he took office, and the 80-year-old scientist was immediately in motion.
Fauci was up well before dawn Thursday for the virtual meeting with WHO, which Biden had rejoined the previous day after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the group out of anger over how it dealt with China in the early days of the pandemic. Fauci told the group that the United States would join its effort to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.
In the afternoon, the doctor stood alongside Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris in the White House as they unveiled a series of executive orders aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, which is killing more than 4,000 Americans a day, as well as bolstering the nation’s sluggish vaccine distribution program.
Fauci had chatted amiably with reporters while awaiting the tardy new president. He acknowledged it was a long day and said that while he’d prefer to go for a run, he planned to powerwalk a few miles Thursday evening.
It was all a stark contrast after being kept on a tight leash by the Trump administration. Their West Wing press shop had tightly controlled Fauci’s media appearances — and blocked most of them. The doctor went from being a constant presence in the briefing room during the first weeks of the pandemic to largely being banished as Trump grew jealous of the doctor’s positive press and resentful of Fauci’s willingness to contradict him.
Moreover, Trump frequently undermined Fauci’s credibility, falsely insisting that the pandemic was nearly over. The president regularly referenced Fauci’s early skepticism about the effectiveness of masks for ordinary Americans, a position that Fauci quickly abandoned in the face of more evidence. And he even made fun of Fauci’s first pitch at a Washington Nationals game.
The president’s attacks on Fauci — and his dismissiveness of the science — handicapped medical professionals trying to get Americans to take the virus seriously.
“There was clear political influence on the message of the pandemic. It became political to say that the pandemic was devastating our community because it was interpreted as a judgement on Trump,” said Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious-diseases physician and a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. “It actively created enemies of the public health folks in a segment of the population.”
Having Fauci return to a central role, Bhadelia said, is a sign “that science was being repressed and now back.”
As his handling of the pandemic became the defining issue in the 2020 campaign, Trump insisted on portraying the virus as a thing of the past. He also mercilessly attacked Fauci, retweeting messages that called for the doctor’s dismissal and reveled in “Fire Fauci!” chants at some of his rallies.
Trump sidelined Fauci but dared not dismiss him, after aides convinced him of the move’s political danger.
But Fauci, who has now served under seven presidents, persevered, telling friends that he would keep his head down and aim to outlast Trump and the obfuscations of his administration.
“Clarity of message is the most important thing the government can be doing right now; the single biggest disservice Trump did was constantly telling people that pandemic was about to be over,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, who has known Fauci for more than 20 years.
In his return to the briefing room, Fauci joked with reporters, seemingly far more relaxed than at any point last year. And as he stepped off the stage, Psaki said she’d soon have him back.
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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OMG. Weasel!
Really?
Which “scientific facts” are you talking about?
The ones YOU cited (requiring us to wear masks, socially distance, lockdown, or rejecting Hydroxychloroquine)?
NOW, of course, you have CHANGED your recommendation on quarantine time (down to 10 days), admission that Masks and/or Social Distancing DOESN’T stop the spread of COVID-19, that Lockdowns HAVEN’T reduced the number of cases of COVID-19 (or lessened the load in Hospital ICU beds), and that Hydroxychloroquine IS, in fact, effective in treating the symptoms of COVID-19!
I have heard SEVERAL interviews (with “news” organizations) where you have contradicted yourself – REPEATEDLY!
You have ZERO credibility!
Hey, where’s the “double-blind study” showing the efficacy of ANY of YOUR recommendations (something you DEMANDED of Hydroxychloroquine)?!
clown!
Fauci, the corrupt WHO / Tedros and communist China. What a triumvirate of criminal corruption. How is that for feeling liberated?
This little lying weasel, who is a “Hard Core” Democrat, and contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President never liked Donald Trump. I am sure that he “Hated” the fact that HE had won the Presidency. Fauci constantly changed his mind, and the facts as well all during his tenure with Trump. He probably had Trump as confused, as everyone else with his changing the guidelines, every time that he turned around. He is in his “Glory” now, because the Democrats are in charge !
Soooooo, when it comes to Covid, we must “follow the science”. But when science says that there are only 2 sexes, and men are men and women are women and you can’t change horses in the middle of the stream, we are labeled disbelievers, heretics and worse. These clowns need to follow the science of me giving them the middle finger.
IF…
President Trump had sent him to the rear of the crowd the FIRST TIME fauxi flipped and negated his credibility this would have never been an issue.
If questioned about him by the ENEMYDIA, he could have explained: “He was WRONG, and I DO NOT NEED WRONG answers to the issues I face!”
100%, President Trump made a big mistake in 2017 when he took office and that is he didn’t get rid of all the Obama the terrorist holdovers!! The fix was in on the day President Trump took office and the DemoScums announced let the impeachment begin!!
An administration that claims that boys can be girls and girls can be boys isn’t ‘science friendly’. An administration that allows abortions throughout a pregnancy and uses as an argument that the human being in the womb is “a blob of tissue” or “not a person” isn’t ‘science friendly’. An administration that claims that shutdowns are the way to control the pandemic apparently (based on recently released research) isn’t ‘science friendly’.
I think what Dr. Fauci is actually saying is that this administration is politically aligned with his belief system and will allow him to have all the press time and make him feel like he is super important and a true authority. To heck with science.
The first thing that I did on March 20th 2020 when Nationwide lockdowns were announced and Fraudi was introduced as the head of the COVID-19 task force, I started to research and investigate Fraudi’s political and business affiliation (which took about 1 day and I knew right there and then that the fix was in for President Trump. President Trump is partly to blame for keeping this “Deep State Dumpster Diver” as well as Dr. Birx another fraud, President Trump should have fired Fauci and brought on Dr. Scott Atlas! The whole COVID-19 thing is one big Scam Demic! If people feared God as much as they fear COVID-19 this world would be a much better place!
The REAL science is simply this: Hydroxychloroquine is a laboratory-created form of quinine. Quinine has been used since the 1800s to prevent and treat malaria. Whether or not hydroxychloroquine is effective at treating Covid-19 can be debated forever, but one thing that cannot be argued is that 100-plus years of quinine use has proven that it is not harmful to use. Banning doctors from using it on critically ill patients is governmental tyranny. Fauci has been a preening peacock from the beginning, and has been wrong too many times to count.
By being liberated does he mean he will now actually be honest in his pronoucements in that he now longer has to play the mole in the Trump admistration and work to cast the President in a bad light? That’s following the science of politics!
His EGO, heaven’s if it hadn’t been for his so called ego, we would not have had the virus. The research done here, was stopped. It was too dangerous, he wanted it to be continued. Fauci got a grant for a place in China, sent all the things to them. This is were the virus was started, it was his fault. Fauci is not only a democrat, he is a card carrying member of the communist party.
This little quack should be plucked, roasted, and eaten.
I guess this little ***** thinks he is in charge hahahah ! Pedo Joe is laughing at him for sure both are bad, very bad people !
Take this little demon back to the Hadron Collider and send him back where he came from !
President Trump should have put Faucci out to pasture early on. Faucci’s fingerprints are all over the Pandemic. He colluded with the Wuhan lab in their research, including letting Chinese “researchers” from Wuhan into his lab in this country. He is one smooth operator, and he fooled me at first. After the Pandemic began, everything he did was aimed at covering his tracks.