By Elishya Perera
WASHINGTON DC (CWBN)_ As President Donald Trump continues to hold rallies with thousands of supporters without masks, and mocks those who take the pandemic seriously, the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, unleashed on the White House Coronavirus approach just days before election.
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Fauci said, in a Washington Post interview published Saturday night (Oct 31). “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly,” he observed.
As the nation set a new daily record on Friday, with more than 98,000 infections in a day, Fauci claimed that the United States needed to make an “abrupt change” in public health practices and behaviors.
Trump continues to downplay the pandemic
These warnings from a leading member of the government’s Coronavirus response come as President Donald Trump fights his way through the final days of the election campaign, by downplaying the pandemic, undercutting his own medical experts, and mocking former vice president Joe Biden for wearing a mask.
The President went so far as to make baseless accusations that U.S. doctors are exaggerating the number of Covid-19 deaths for profit, and claimed the news media gives it too much attention to the pandemic.
By contrast, former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala D. Harris have consistently worn masks in public, and have held socially distanced events. When two people around Harris tested positive for the Coronavirus in October, she canceled travel for several days.
Dr. Fauci acknowledged the different approaches taken by the two parties as he said the Democrats are “taking it seriously from a public health perspective”, while Trump is “looking at it from a different perspective… the economy and reopening the country”.
The country’s leading infectious-disease expert also complained that the White House Coronavirus task force meets less frequently, while Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and Trump’s favored pandemic adviser, is the only medical adviser the president regularly meets with.
Fauci claims that this is owing to the fact that the White House didn’t like the message delivered by him and Coronavirus task force coordinator, Deborah Birx. “They needed to have a medical message that was essentially consistent with what they were saying,” Fauci observed.
Fauci also said that he has “real problems” with Scott Atlas. “He’s a smart guy who’s talking about things that I believe he doesn’t have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn’t make any sense,” Fauci said.
During the interview Fauci acknowledged chief of staff Mark Meadows’ honesty when he admitted to that the administration has given up controlling the spread of the virus. “I tip my hat to him for admitting the strategy,” he said. “He is straightforward in telling you what’s on his mind. I commend him for that”.
White House accuse Fauci of bolstering Biden’s bid for the presidency
The comments made by Dr. Fauci during the interview drew a sharp rebuke from the White House, which accused Dr Fauci of ‘playing politics’.
“As a member of the Task Force, Dr. Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he’s not done that, instead choosing to criticize the President in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the President’s opponent,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration, through the work of the Task Force, continues to surge testing, PPE, personnel, and capacity to protect the vulnerable, help schools reopen, and respond to conditions on the ground,” Deere claimed.
Meanwhile, Scott Atlas responded to Fauci on Twitter, tweeting on Saturday night: “#Insecurity #EmbarrassingHimself #Exposed #CantThrowABall #NoTimeForPolitics”.
On Saturday, Atlas did a lengthy interview with RT, an agent of the Russian government, and the propaganda network that had played a major role in the Kremlin’s efforts to interfere in the US presidential election in 2016.
During the interview, Atlas downplayed the virus and affirmed President Trump’s false claim that the country is “rounding the turn”.
“It’s tragic. There’s no question about that,” Atlas said. “But if you wanna know what’s happening right now, I think there’s a gross distortion that has sort of been typical of the reporting on this. And that is that there’s this frenzy of focusing on the number of cases when we see a lot of reasons to be sort of, you know, cautiously optimistic here rather than fearful”.
However, on Sunday, Atlas apologized for doing the interview, tweeting, “I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent. I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us”.
This isn’t the first time Fauci has disagreed with the Trump administration for their handling of the pandemic. Earlier this month, the President trashed Fauci as a “disaster” and declared the country ready to move on from the pandemic, referring Fauci and other health officials as “idiots”.
On the other hand, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who has not ruled out further lockdowns, pledged to “let science drive our decisions” if he is elected. The former vice president has called the president’s handling of the pandemic an “insult” to its victims.
