Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Washington Post he needed to be careful with his words, fearing further isolation from the White House; yet, he still said the U.S. is "in for a whole lot of hurt" from the global coronavirus pandemic.
It is a sobering message amid the rise in COVID-19 positives around the world.
"We're in for a whole lot of hurt," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Post. "It's not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."
That message came in an interview Friday, where Fauci said he had to be careful of what he said because he would be blocked from speaking publicly in the future, according to the Post.
Fauci, who had said publicly he is a close friend of the Cuomo family, New York Democrats, called for "abrupt change" in public health practices and predicted 100,000 new cases per day and a massive wave of death in the coming weeks and months.
It would be hard to say something worse of the White House's coronavirus task force, which Fauci said "the public health aspect of the task force has diminished greatly."
Trump has lashed out against the doomsayers on the stump, pointing to an improving survival rate and world-class treatment of the COVID-19 infections.
But, despite the negative comments, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement to the Post, Fauci "knows the risks [from the coronavirus] today are dramatically lower than they were only a few months ago."
"It's unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Fauci, a senior member of the president's coronavirus task force and someone who has praised President Trump's actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before an election to play politics," Deere added. "As a member of the task force, Dr. Fauci has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy, but he's not done that, instead choosing to criticize the 'president in the media and make his political leanings known by praising the president's opponent — exactly what the American people have come to expect from The Swamp."
Trump has said on the stump the pandemic response by the task force should get high grades, while the "public messaging" gets a "D or an F."
"I mean our doctors are very smart people, so what they do is they say, 'I'm sorry but everybody dies of COVID,'" Trump told Waterford Township, Michigan, campaign rally.
Trump has elevated Dr. Scott Atlas in a more prominent role on the task force, which has led to early voices of lockdowns like Fauci and the response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx having diminished roles. Neither likes Fauci, in fact Birx has reportedly pulled back because of Atlas' influence.
"I have real problems with that guy," Fauci told the Post of Atlas. "He's a smart guy who's talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn't make any sense."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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