'I know, but what do you want me to do?': Fauci's strikingly honest review of Trump's coronavirus response

thehour.com ^ | 3/23/20 | Aaron Blake

[a little elbow grease]

Dr. Anthony Fauci's interview with Science magazine began on an inauspicious note. Asked how he's doing right now, Fauci said he was "exhausted" but "good." "I mean, I'm not, to my knowledge, coronavirus-infected," he said, before adding with a laugh: "To my knowledge, I haven't been fired."

What followed were several exchanges that should help people take stock of President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus. Repeatedly, Fauci tacitly and even openly admitted that comments made by the commander in chief are not true and are not in line with what the nation's leading infectious disease expert is advising.

The interviewer, Jon Cohen, asked whether Fauci would acknowledge that Trump says things he disagrees with, and Fauci seemed to grant the premise. Fauci maintained that, "I don't disagree on the substance" - but then added: "It is expressed in a way that I would not express it, because it could lead to some misunderstanding about what the facts are about a given subject."

The exchange highlights the mixed messages the country has been getting in recent days, in particular, about the promise of certain drugs to treat coronavirus. While Fauci has warned that evidence of the drugs' effectiveness is "anecdotal" and that there is no "magic drug" to treat coronavirus, Trump said Friday that he "disagreed" with Fauci, at least in part, and has repeatedly hailed a malaria drug in particular as a possible "game-changer."

Asked about the White House holding crowded events like a Rose Garden news conference in which Trump was shaking hands with people, Fauci admitted he has repeatedly advised against it. "I keep saying, is there any way we can get a virtual news conference. Thus far, no," Fauci said. "I'm trying my best. I cannot do the impossible."

[Buckeye McFrog]

Dr. Birx is going to become the point person on this. She’s into dispassionate analysis of data. And last night it sounded as if the data was leading her in Trumps direction.

[taildragger]

I got to tell you I've had enough of the Dr. You run with what you have in a time of an emergency, this is not the time for studies, what the heck, do we not have the right to try?

With that mindset Apollo 13 would have never made it back. Remember the bootstrap transition duct to the CO2 filter made with cardboard, duct-tape, & a pair of socks?

I am no Dr, however theses two drugs & a zinc compound seem to work, this is war, shut up & freaking do it...

[a little elbow grease]

I bet he is insufferable at home.

________

Ditto.

Insufferable is a great word for him ...... also I have a feeling some people who raised him may have called him incorrigible too. He looks like the little dweeb who CANNOT BE CORRECTED or he will go in a corner and sulk.

******

[AmericanMermaid]

He looks like a spoiled mama’s boy and geek who got mad and vindictive when a girl would turn him down. I knew someone like that.

[harpu]

And there is a difference - but we need both.

[wastoute]

You, too. Pray for the folks in ERs and ICUs and for the doctors, nurses, RT,s and the others who are literally risking their own lives for our families. As I have been saying (and I heard Brix say last night) this is “droplet spread” meaning contaminated surfaces are the most likely routes of transmission rather than inhaled. Unfortunately, for healthcare workers, the procedures the do with patients, incubating, suctioning the airway means for them the transmission is different. For them it IS aerosol which is why THEY NEED the masks. Likely the size of the inoculum is much, much higher and the route is deep in the lungs not at the end of the nose. We will see the Ro and CFR for healthcare workers WILL be higher than what it is for everyone else. This countries healthcare workers will be getting ill at a terrible rate for the next week and they will probably be even sicker. And they will do it out of a sense of duty. What we can do is commit ourselves to being worth their sacrifice.

I hear the concern about wealth. Wealth is transient at best. There is no doubt this disease will “redistribute” the wealth of this country. Even the Bible lists plagues (epidemics), earthquakes, and war together. This is a globe changing event. We can unite and come together and forget about wealth for a few weeks. Let those with no dignity scrum for lucre. Remember who they were when it is over. The wealth of this country is being thrown in the air. Watch the behavior of those about you who shamefully embarrass themselves and remember. The lack of dignity is “beneath contempt”. Those with calm resolution will face the future with confidence understanding what has happened and why. Reprehensible behavior should be noted and punished. This nation is being “sifted”.

[billyboy15]

I agree, your Mom was wise in her words. We could take lessons from the British during WW2. At the time and under the leadership of Winston Churchill they weathered the daily bombing of Germany with incredible courage and determination. It was their finest hour.

After the war the people basically cast aside the man who led them through it all and have now become a nation I do not recognize after spending 3 yrs there in the early to mid 60’s.

[wastoute]

Trump was trying to reassure people. I disagree as some of you know but I understand it. Don’t panic the herd and all that. I am just a little disappointed in that he is probably correct to do so because “We can’t handle the truth.” Too few of us want to be treated like adults. When the bombs were falling in the blitz Londoners didn’t want “happy talk”. Their leader admonished them to rise to the challenge. This is our blitz. This is another 9/11. And we know who is responsible.

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

Dr. Fauci was very wrong just 7-weeks ago, when the Trump State Department issued it’s first warnings on travel to/from China due to Covid-19:

January 26, 2020
(Dr. Anthony Fauci) Government health agency official: Coronavirus ‘isn’t something the American public need to worry about

Podcast:
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/749314015%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-RqCgl&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true#

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Sunday the American public shouldn’t worry about the coronavirus outbreak in China.

“It’s a very, very low risk to the United States,” Fauci said during an interview with radio show host John Catsimatidis.

Fauci goes on to say they we can monitor all travelers that come in from China to prevent the spread.

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/479939-government-health-agency-official-corona-virus-isnt-something-the

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3811054/posts

[Vendome]

Yes...

[wastoute]

Coming out of this we should hope that moving forward we learn that we have to remember who really is important ini this country. The plumbers, the carpenters, the steel workers, the truck drivers. The people who touch things and move things. The people who do that grubby thing called “work”. Who do so without complaining and quietly return to their own hearth. If our leaders continue to hold them in contempt they will destroy this country.

[buffaloguy]

Fauci speaks to facts

Trump speaks to hope.

---

These are proper roles for the gentlemen involved.

[Sacajaweau]

Thanks for posting.

[MAGAthon]

the President should somehow bring Prof John Ioannidis of Stanford into the picture. let Fauci debate him and see what happens. Fauci is not infallible.

[reformedliberal]

And last night it sounded as if the data was leading her in Trumps direction.
_________________________________________

Also, in regard to Dr. Birx:

last night, when she was admitting she had self-isolated and received a test after running a low-grade fever, there was some side play between her and POTUS that broke the tension. Trump was clowning and she was affectionately grinning, eye-rolling and in general playing indulgent mom to a rambunctious teen boy.

The Donald has won her over on a personal level.

At some point a preponderance of anecdote becomes data. There was a time when hand washing was not considered important in the transmission of disease.

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

Fauci has made Big Pharma $billions.

Is Anthony Fauci the Bernie Madoff of Aids?

http://charlesortleb.podbean.com/e/is-anthony-fauci-the-bernie-madoff-of-aids-and-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

[DAC21]

“No. Fauci and other scientists are too trained in black and white and never took a history or philosophy class, leading them to have major blind spots. Fauci should be shoved aside and monitored so he does no further harm”

Yep, stated spot on. I worked with a large R&D group for a Electronic Manufacturer. The Software / Test Engineers were an interesting group. Mostly very good at their job description. Half of them probably couldn't execute a Grocery shopping list. Rigid, little social grace. Strange lot for the most part. Many were right of center, a couple are big gun enthusiast (they bucked the trend line and were pretty normal guys) and that's in So Cal

[virgil]

We call it brainstorming in my neck of the woods. It’s a tool we use to help solve problems.

[avital2]

he wasn’t in the briefing yesterday. i just always remember he is a bureaucrat.

[HotKat]

Fauci: Operations
Trump: sales