Published 11:08 IST, January 25th 2021
Fauci says he was 'skunk at the picnic' in Trump administration's COVID-19 task force
The US top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he was “skunk at the picnic” in the former US President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force.
US top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he was “skunk at the picnic” in the former US President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force in an interview with New York Times on January 24. As several senior officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden voiced criticism over the response of the previous government, Fauci said that some people had assumed that he was “complicit in the distortions emanating from the stage” during the White House COVID-19 briefings early in the outbreak. Even though the top infectious disease expert had clashed with the Republican leader, Fauci explained that he never considered stepping down from the post.
In the candid interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “I felt that if I stepped down that would leave a void. Someone’s got to not be afraid to speak out the truth. [White House staff] would try to play down real problems and have a little happy talk about how things are OK. And I would always say, ‘Wait a minute, hold it, folks, this is serious business.’ So there was a joke – a friendly joke, you know – that I was the skunk at the picnic.”
Meanwhile, as per Johns Hopkins University tally, the total infections of the novel coronavirus in the United States has surpassed 25 million with casualties nearing 420,000. The economy is plunging with the mass roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines being uneven. During the several months of crucial handling of the pandemic in the country, Trump had criticised Fauci for his direction and even flirted with firing him but never moved against the widely loved director of the National Insitute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, who has even served all US Presidents since 1984.
‘Lack of truthness’ in Trump administration
Earlier, Fauci had even said that the lack of truthfulness from the Trump’s administration about the coronavirus pandemic “very likely” cost American lives. Even though he was majorly sidelined in the coronavirus task force briefings, he returned to the White House after newly minted President Joe Biden released a national COVID-19 strategy and signed ten executive orders to combat the unprecedented pandemic. Fauci said, “Particularly when you're in the situation of almost being in a crisis with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths that we have -- when you start talking about things that make no sense medically and no sense scientifically, that clearly is not helpful”.
Updated 11:08 IST, January 25th 2021