The nation's leading allergy and infectious disease doctor continues to affirm he and President Trump are on the same page about how to best control the spread of the coronavirus in the United States.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases unusual departure from his usual scientific demeanor came in response to media claims the two aren't in lockstep.
“The president has listened to what I have said and to what the other people on the task force have said. When I have made recommendations, he has taken them. He’s never countered or overridden me. The idea of just pitting one against the other is just not helpful,” Anthony Fauci said during an interview with WMAL on Tuesday. "I wish that would stop, and we’d look ahead at the challenge we have to pull together to get over this thing.”
Several political observers questioned the two men's working relationship after Fauci did not appear at Monday's White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing.
“Really, fundamentally at the core ..., there are no differences," Fauci said.
Fauci told Fox News Trump has "never overruled" him when it comes to how to respond to the pandemic that has resulted in more than 500 American deaths.
"Thank you, Tony," Trump responded to Fauci's defense of their rapport.
CNN, among others, has reported tension between NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Trump, reports Fauci firmly debunked over the last couple days. (Photo Illustration: ACV Reports)
Over the weekend, Fauci explained that while he provides information to the public from a strictly scientific point of view, Trump's style is more based on hope and reassurance.
"I was taking a purely medical, scientific standpoint, and the president was trying to bring hope to the people," Fauci said Sunday, as reported earlier by AVC Reports.
"I think there's this issue of trying to separate the two of us. There isn't fundamentally a difference there. He's coming to it from a hope, layperson standpoint. I'm coming from it from a scientific standpoint."
On Tuesday, Fauci had a stronger tone and called reporters reading into his absence at Monday's press briefing "ridiculous."
"There really is nothing like that going on at all," Fauci told Philadelphia AM 990's The Answer.
More than 55,000 people in the U.S. have contracted the coronavirus, leading to over 800 deaths as of Wednesday morning.
When asked whether Trump disregards scientific evidence or data regarding the virus presented by the task force, Fauci said, "That is completely untrue."
"I meet with him virtually every day. He listens. I’ve never had a situation where I strongly suggested something to him that he rejected," Fauci told the Philadelphia radio station. "I think this idea that there is any conflict between the two of us is not based in any reality.”
Comments