US 'in for a whole lot of hurt', says Fauci as White House takes credit for 'ending' COVID

In a dire warning against the rising trajectory of the COVID-19 case count with a dread of winter surge, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on November 1 that the US is "not in a good situation" and is "in for a whole lot of hurt." Dr. Anthony Fauci's warnings come just a few days after the US President Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims at his Wisconsin campaign rally, saying, that the US was "rounding the turn", meanwhile glorifying his recovery, boasting about the vaccine's "fast" availability, attacking media of its COVID coverage, and lambasting his democratic contender Biden for wearing a mask. 

In an interview with US' The Washington Post, US' top infectious disease specialist openly derided the White House's approach for containment of the virus, just two days ahead of the US Presidential elections. In a first, since his drift with the White House that made efforts to discredit his recommendation in the battle to combat the coronavirus, Fauci urged the American people to "socially distance" and "wear a mask" in an interview published November 1. Contrary to Trump's remarks earlier that the coronavirus pandemic is going to “end quickly”, Fauci warned of a COVID-19 surge. In a blunt assessment of Trump’s response, Fauci said, that the US must make "abrupt changes" to its public health practices or it will surpass 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day in days to come. 

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Fauci criticizes Scott Atlas' strategies

Slamming the White House for adhering to coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas with no prior training in infectious diseases, saying he has no real insight or knowledge or experience. Fauci affirmed Trump aide and chief of staff Mark Meadows' statement in a television interview, instead. The former congressman from North Carolina said that the Republicans were more focused on making the therapeutics and vaccines available and that the Trump administration was “not going to control the virus”. “Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu, we’re not going to contain it,” the White House chief of staff stressed in an interview with CNN's State of the Union.

Fauci slammed Trump's downplaying of the pandemic, calling his administration "unprepared", saying, the US has been steering in the wrong direction. Further, he warned, that as the country enters into the fall and winter season, and with people congregating indoors, the US could not possibly be "positioned more poorly." He added that US may not return to ‘normalcy’ until 2022. Fauci spoke as the United States recorded a fresh onslaught of more than 98,000 COVID-19 infections, and close to 1,000 fatalities with hospitalization rate picking up across several states.

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