Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said former President Donald Trump was trying to reduce the severity of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 25.6 million individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States as of Sunday, and more than 429,000 deaths were attributed to the virus. At the time, Fauci’s routine public contradictions of Trump’s pandemic claims provoked the harsh backlash from MAGA supporters, who ‘would fire Fauci’! at campaign rallies.
Now he works for President Biden’s government, Fauci said The New York Times, in an interview published Sunday, that Trump urged him to be optimistic – even if it was bad.
“I would try to express the seriousness of the situation, and the president’s response always tends to be, ‘Well, that’s not that bad, is it?’ And I would say, ‘Yeah, that’s so bad,’ ‘he recalls.
“It was almost a reflex reaction, trying to entice you to minimize it. Not to say, ‘I want you to reduce it,’ but, ‘Oh, was that really that bad?'” Fauci continued.
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“There were a few times a statement that was a pessimistic view of which direction we were going, and the president would call me and say, ‘Hey, why are you not positive anymore? to adopt a positive attitude. Why are you so negative? Be more positive. ‘”
Fauci also expressed concern about how Trump would view the opinions of his business colleagues and others on pandemic-related issues as important information.
“It was clear he was getting input from people who called him. I do not know who, people he knew from the business world and said, ‘Hey, I heard about this drug, isn’ t it wonderful? ‘ or, ‘Boy, this recovery problem is really phenomenal,’ ‘he said. “He would take their opinion equally seriously – based on no data, just anecdotes – that something could be really important. It was not just hydroxychloroquine, it was a variety of approaches to alternative medicine. “
Trump approved the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial medication, to treat the coronavirus in the early stages. Last year, he tweeted a controversial claim that the drug is ‘a remedy for Covid’. However, its reliance on the drug, which has an unproven efficacy against the virus, has violated federal health agency guidelines. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against its use for COVID-19 outside of a hospital or clinical trial, due to the risk of heart rhythm.
Fauci said he “quietly tried to explain” to Trump that drugs should undergo a clinical trial, but the former president would say, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this stuff really works.”
Newsweek Trump representatives reached out for comment.