A top National Institutes of Health official pushed back Friday at a New York Times report claiming he'd been told to get White House clearance before making any statements about the coronavirus.
“I’m not being muzzled,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, told MSNBC.
“Everybody who has — gets on shows like this, you have a normal clearance," Fauci said. "I was cleared here. And here I am talking to you, and I’ll give you the whole truth the way I always have.”
According to The Times, at a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday, Fauci described the seriousness of the public health threat, saying “this virus has adapted extremely well to human species” and noting it appeared to have a higher mortality rate than influenza.
“We are dealing with a serious virus,” Fauci said, as The Times reported.
The report added Fauci has told associates the White House instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.
“That was completely misconstrued,” Fauci told MSNBC.
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